Cummings threat to Cabinet leakers
MINISTERS who are suspected of leaking to the media are at the greatest risk of being sacked or demoted in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet reshuffle.
The clampdown has led to complaints about ‘control freakery’, and an image from last week’s Mail on Sunday of Mr Johnson, enforcer Dominic Cummings and Chancellor Sajid Javid as Mafia heavies was widely shared by Ministers on WhatsApp.
One Cabinet Minister has been secretly tracked by No 10 officials. During Cabinet meetings, officials have been making their own notes about what has been discussed and they then compare them with any leaks in the following day’s newspapers.
The Minister in question denies being a leaker – and claims to have been ‘framed’ by Cabinet colleagues.
At a meeting at Downing Street on Friday, Mr Cummings told his staff: ‘The people’s government doesn’t take any favours. No coffees, no lunches, no drinks. Especially not with journalists.’
Tensions over No 10’s ‘control’ erupted last week over the HS2 project after media outlets were briefed that Mr Javid believed the high-speed line should go ahead, despite the opposition of Mr Cummings and special adviser Andrew Gilligan.
It led an angry No 10 official to say: ‘This is not coming from us. I think it’s pretty clear where it’s coming from.
‘All I would say is that this sort of thing became commonplace under Theresa May. But this is not a government led by Theresa May, and we have the authority and the majority to ensure this sort of thing does not go on any longer’.
During the Election, Mr Johnson insisted the Chancellor’s job was secure and he would deliver next month’s Budget. A reshuffle is expected within the next fortnight but there is not due to be a major upheaval of Mr Johnson’s most senior Ministers. Mr Javid, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove are all said to be safe.