Who’s really in charge?
Cummings toughs it out
Boris Johnson was this week fending off furious demands that he dismiss his senior adviser Dominic Cummings, in response to allegations that he had breached lockdown rules. Over the weekend, it emerged that in late March, Cummings had driven 260 miles from London to his parents’ farm in County Durham with his wife – who had coronavirus symptoms – and their four-year-old son. The couple apparently made the trip because they felt it would be better to self-isolate in a place where they had options for childcare, should they both become incapacitated. The PM defended his aide, saying he had followed
“the instincts of every father”, and Cummings, in a lengthy press conference in No. 10’s rose garden, insisted he had acted responsibly and legally. But their stance drew stinging criticism from many members of the public and MPs of all parties.
The row overshadowed the announcement of the latest plans to ease the lockdown restrictions. The Government confirmed that the phased reopening of England’s primary schools would begin next week. High street shops, department stores and shopping centres are set to reopen in England on 15 June.
What the editorials said
No. 10 has mishandled this affair, said The Times. It should have laid out the facts earlier, and expressed more contrition. Still, Cummings committed no great crime. He was doing what he thought best for his family, in a stressful time. The calls for his sacking – many of which have come from long-standing critics of the PM who resent the influence of his adviser – should be resisted.
There is clearly “an element of political pointscoring” at work, but there’s nothing confected about the public anger, said The Daily Telegraph. The fact is, the lockdown rules have prevented millions of us from acting for the good of our families. Many haven’t been able to visit ageing parents for months; others have missed the chance to say goodbye to loved ones. Plenty of couples have had the virus and coped alone with their small children. The clear rule was to “stay at home”, said The Guardian. Cummings not only went to Durham but then, on Easter Day, drove 30 miles with his wife and child to Barnard Castle, a local beauty spot, supposedly to “test his eyesight” before the long drive back to London. Cummings “violated the spirit and letter of the lockdown”, said the Daily Mail, and in doing so has given every selfish person in the country a licence to ignore the rules. He must go. “No ifs, no buts.”
What the commentators said
Johnson would hardly be the first Prime Minister to lose a key adviser, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. Theresa May had to say goodbye to her “terrible twins”, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill; David Cameron was forced to drop Andy Coulson; Tony Blair had to learn to manage without Alastair Campbell, who famously said that when an aide “becomes the story” it’s time to go. So why, given how much political damage it is causing him, is the PM so desperate to keep hold of Cummings?
The truth is that Johnson is “psychologically dependent” on his adviser, said Iain Martin on Reaction.life. For all his towering ambition, the PM is curiously lacking in confidence in some respects. He has no “grand vision” of his own and knows he is “usually far out of his depth” in the practicalities of administration. In Cummings, he sees a man with firm convictions who shares his iconoclastic instincts. He also feels indebted to his aide for twice rescuing him from “potential humiliation”: first, by devising the successful campaign to win the 2016 Brexit referendum; second, by masterminding Johnson’s storming election victory. This explains why Cummings wields such a powerful influence within No. 10. An insider joked after last year’s reshuffle that “it was bloody decent of Dom to keep Boris on as Deputy Prime Minister”.
The PM should have more faith in his own abilities, said Camilla Tominey in The Daily Telegraph. He twice won the London mayoralty without Cummings’s help and, as “one of the most extraordinary political performers in a generation”, played a key role in winning the Brexit referendum. Johnson and Cummings make a good team precisely because they have complementary strengths, said Charlie Cooper and Emilio Casalicchio on Politico. “As a bigpicture person, Boris needs a details man,” explains a colleague. “And as a frontman, he needs an ops guy.” With the country in the middle of a health crisis, the PM is naturally keen to keep hold of the “lynchpin” of the No. 10 operation. But if his plunging approval ratings don’t recover, he could soon face an impossible choice: “lose Cummings and with him the engine of his government, or keep him and lose the public”.
What next?
Durham police are investigating Cummings’s alleged breaches of lockdown law. They will track the movements of his car and examine whether he broke the highway code by driving when his eyesight may have been affected by Covid-19.
Ministers, meanwhile, are considering announcing plans to let people in England invite a limited number of people into their gardens for socially distanced gatherings as soon as next week. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said that lockdowns could in future be introduced “at a micro level” to deal with flare-ups in particular areas, schools, hospitals or workplaces. The measures, he said, would be part of the test-andtrace system, which would be ready by next week.