‘He thought MPS were idiots and the Cabinet was window dressing’
The irony of Sajid Javid now being in the frame to become Boris Johnson’s chief of staff after Dominic Cummings lost the power struggle for No 10 will not be lost on the former Vote Leave Svengali.
For it was Mr Cummings’s decision to sack Mr Javid’s special adviser Sonia Khan last August that set in motion a chain of events that arguably led to his swift departure from No 10 last night.
Following Wednesday’s resignation by Lee Cain, Downing Street’s communications director, who worked with Mr Cummings on the Brexit campaign, the Prime Minister’s chief adviser suggested he might stay on until Christmas. But in reality, his position became untenable yesterday after Mr Johnson called his bluff, having seemingly decided that his entire administration needed a reset.
It came after Carrie Symonds, his fiancée, joined forces with Downing Street’s new press secretary, Allegra Stratton, to oppose Mr Cummings’s attempt to install Mr Cain, and then Cleo Watson, another of his allies, as chief of staff.
Even before coronavirus threw Mr Johnson’s fledgling premiership into chaos, serious concerns were being raised about the man David Cameron described as a “career psychopath”.
His coup to force Javid out of the Treasury after last December’s general election left observers asking: “If this was how he is treating the Chancellor, what about everyone else?”
Renowned for being “good at ideas but bad at people”, his mishandling of
Miss Khan, who yesterday received a five-figure compensation payout, led some to start questioning whether Mr Cummings had a “women problem”.
According to one former spad (special adviser), who observed his methods at close quarters: “Over the summer of 2019 he was quite collegiate. He was saying things like, ‘I know you need to speak to journalists to give them colour, just don’t leak any major decisions.’
“The next thing we know Sonia was being accused of leaking and frogmarched out of No 10 by the police. By Christmas, his attitude was basically, ‘If you step out of line, I’ll f--- you.’
“The election seemed to flick a switch in him. He came to think he was some kind of untouchable god. His attitude was basically the Cabinet is window dressing, MPS are idiots and spads are like World War One soldiers to be sent over the top. He bullied people, especially women.” It certainly
didn’t help that by now Mr Cummings was not only trying to control the Government’s communications strategy but his own PR.
Journalists who called Downing Street spokesmen for reaction to stories about Mr Cummings were often directed to the man himself. Many now suspect him to have been the source of several leaks, including the news of the second lockdown.
Having helped to orchestrate a largely supine Cabinet, and marginalised Tory MPS, who he once accused of “not caring about poor people or the NHS”, Mr Cummings then set about assuming ultimate control of Downing Street decision making.
After helping to deliver a Brexit deal and an 80-seat majority for Mr Johnson, he had arguably earned his demand for power over the No 10 machine.
But when the pandemic hit, his over-centralised operation was tested to destruction. While undoubtedly one of the most effective campaigners in recent political memory, when it came to governing during a national emergency, Mr Cummings’s control freakery proved to be his Achilles’ heel.
The establishment of two Covid-19 subcommittees – strategy, chaired by the PM, and operations, chaired by Michael Gove, was Mr Cummings’s
idea. Echoing the structure on Brexit, the move ensured that all the major decisions on Covid would be taken at subcommittee level, so they only needed to be rubber-stamped by the wider Cabinet. Naturally, Mr Cummings attended all the key meetings.
But insiders say that the leader of Vote Leave, who had once always been consultative, turned into someone who would regularly “freeze out” dissenters.
According to one well-placed source: “He assumed too much power and started treating people like s--t. I don’t think he’s capable of empathy, and even if he was, he doesn’t seem to think it’s an important quality in politics.
“He applied for misfits and weirdos to work with him in government because he didn’t want anyone challenging his opinions.”
Tory MPS still point to Barnard Castle as a significant turning point in the so-called “cult of Cummings”. Having long asserted his moral superiority over the average Conserva
tive (Mr Cummings insists he has never been a member of any political party), he then appeared somewhat of a hypocrite when he travelled 264 miles to Durham at the height of the first lockdown, infamously driving to the market town to “test out” his eyesight.
As one senior Tory put it: “Boris spent so much political capital defending him over that. Mr Cummings should have resigned then but instead he was allowed to give a press conference in the Downing Street Rose Garden. That not only showed how he was totally lacking in self awareness but also how powerful he had become.”
The move alienated Mr Johnson from his party amid accusations that Mr Cummings was wilfully isolating the PM from his closest allies.
Another problem was that Mr Cummings didn’t have much appetite for important aspects of the job like keeping MPS on-side or protecting his boss’s reputation.
Those close to Mr Johnson began to suspect that despite his undoubted work ethic and commitment to the cause, he did not care about the Prime Minister personally, with some likening their relationship to an abusive marriage.
A source said: “Cabinet is relieved. We feel like we’ve got our PM back.”
‘The election seemed to flick a switch in him. He came to think he was some kind of untouchable god’