It might just be time for the cuckoo to fly the nest

When Boris Johnson asked Dominic Cummings to be his chief adviser, the former Vote Leave supremo insisted on a contract specifying that he would have “special powers” over hirings and firings in No 10.

So perhaps it was to be expected that he, too, would threaten to resign after losing the battle to install his fellow Brexit campaigner Lee Cain as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.

Initially, Mr Cain’s decision to quit as Downing Street’s director of communications following a bitter power struggle with Carrie Symonds and other Westminster women prompted a number of loyalists to go in to see the PM, issuing what one insider suggested was a “series of requests”.

It came amid talk that Mr Cummings was ready to follow Mr Cain out of No 10 and take most of the Vote Leavers with him – with Oliver Lewis, the Brexit policy chief, Lord Frost, the EU sherpa, and Ben Warner, a data guru, all thought to be “considering their positions”.

Yet despite the heated hyperbole, the key protagonists ended up simmering down over a beer after their esteemed leader had apparently concluded that “nothing would really change” if he left. Mr Cummings is understood to have asked them: “How will it make things better?”

That Downing Street staffers appeared to be taking their direction from Mr Cummings, rather than “the boss”, perhaps highlights where things have been going wrong for Mr Johnson.

Likened by Tory MPS to the Pushmi-pullyu, Dr Dolittle’s doubleheaded llama, he finds himself in the middle of an increasingly factional war.

On one side, there is the formidable presence of Mr Cummings, once described as a “career psychopath” by David Cameron, whose overcentralised approach has marginalised both Cabinet and party.

On the other is Mr Johnson’s 32-year-old fiancée, a former head of Conservative Party communications whose closeness not only to the PM, but also ministers and members of the media has long threatened Mr Cummings’s stranglehold over Downing Street decision-making.

Yet, with an endless stream of leaks having seemingly “bounced” Mr Johnson into taking major decisions over Covid, the economy and now appointments to his own top team, it is little wonder people are starting to question who is really in charge.

Tory backbenchers have long been suspicious of Mr Cummings’s relationship with Michael Gove, for whom he worked as a special adviser at the Department of Education from 2011 to 2014. Having declared he would make a “better PM” when he stabbed Mr Johnson in the back during the 2016 Tory leadership race, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has gone on to position himself as one of the most influential figures in Government, chairing a number of key subcommittees on Covid, Brexit, civil service reform and the future of the union.

As a Tory veteran put it: “No one can understand Boris’s passion for Cummings or his forgiveness of Gove. The only explanation is, he is happy with them both running the country.”

Regardless of their growing frustration at “endless U-turns that have made us look stupid” and their dissatisfaction at being cut out by Downing Street, what has upset MPS most is the fact that Mr Johnson continues to allow himself to be manipulated by people who “don’t have his best interests at heart”.

“The judgment he showed in trying to bring in Lee Cain as his chief of staff beggars belief,” said one. “Everybody has been telling him he needs an experienced figure who cannot only take Cummings on, but reconnect with the party … Boris cannot seem to see what is going on around him.”

Another senior Tory added: “All wings of the party are unhappy which is not a happy place for the PM to be. If he wants to survive, things have got to change otherwise he is in real trouble.”

Mark Spencer, the chief whip, is understood to have told Mr Johnson on Wednesday that Mr Cain’s promotion would “not be appreciated in Parliament”.

Now, MPS are praying his departure in January will prompt a major “reset”.

They hope the arrival of Allegra Stratton, a former ITV journalist and key ally of Ms Symonds, as press secretary will help to make Downing Street less “Cummings contingent” and eventually force him to step down once the Brexit transition period ends on December 31.

A well-placed source said it was only a matter of time before a “weakened” Mr Cummings “flounces out”.

“The reality is he is fighting a losing battle. He lost over Lee, and now he’s going to be without a key ally. At No 10, it’s always about how much time you spend with the PM. Dom had always tried to make sure it was only ever his people but now he’s a man down. If the PM does finally start listening to other people, then it will be time for the cuckoo to fly the nest.”