The rise of Dominic Cummings

From first-class Oxford history graduate to helping make history with Brexit

1994-1997: After graduating from Oxford with a first class degree in ancient and modern history, Dominic Cummings moves to Russia where he attempts to set up an airline connecting Samara in

southern Russia to Vienna.

1999 to 2002: He

works as campaign director at Business for Sterling, the campaign against the UK joining the euro.

2002: Mr Cummings secures a job as director of strategy for then Tory Party leader Iain Duncan Smith.

2003: He founds the New Frontiers Foundation think tank and is cited as a “key figure” in the successful 2004 campaign against a

North-east Regional Assembly.

2005: He takes two and a half years out of politics, moving into the ‘bunker’ on his father’s Durham farm, reading science and history and “trying to understand the world”.

2007: Michael Gove appoints Mr Cummings as his special adviser.

2010: David Cameron’s communications chief Andy Coulson blocks Mr Cummings accompanying Mr Gove in the coalition government. But when Mr Coulson is forced to resign in 2011, Mr Gove, now education secretary, brings in his ally.

2011: In his role as Mr Gove’s adviser in the Department for Education, Mr

Cummings’s revolutionary attempts to tackle the “blob” wins both admirers and harsh critics.

2015: He becomes the campaign director of Vote Leave, where he is credited with devising the ubiquitous slogan “Take back control”. He is seen as the mastermind of campaign.

July 2019: Boris

Johnson becomes Prime Minister and appoints Mr Cummings as his most senior adviser. Aug 2019: Mr

Cummings is accused of hatching a plan to prorogue Parliament. December 2019:

He is credited with playing a key role in Boris Johnson’s landslide general election victory.

Jan 2020: Britain leaves the UK, with the PM crediting “genius” Mr Cummings for delivering Brexit.

May 2020: Mr Cummings is accused of breaking lockdown rules by driving from London to his father’s farm in Durham.