Javid warns PM over adviser Cummings
SAJID Javid yesterday launched a bitter broadside at Boris Johnson, warning the Prime Minister must listen with “respect” to voices other than his adviser Dominic Cummings.
The former chancellor called for “mutual respect and trust” in the Government and suggested Cummings’ divisive tactics were against the “national interest”.
Speaking from the Commons backbenches, Javid made a personal statement to explain to
MPs why he resigned a fortnight ago rather than have Downing Street advisers installed in the Treasury.
He said he could not accept the conditions Cummings wanted to impose.
He said: “A chancellor, like all cabinet ministers, has to be able to give candid advice so he is speaking truth to power. I believe the arrangement proposed would significantly inhibit that and would not have been in the national interest.”
In an apparent reference to Cummings, he added: “I don’t intend to dwell further on all the details and the personalities... the comings and goings if you will.”
He added: “I very much hope the new Chancellor will be given space to do his job without fear or favour.”
Javid said the Treasury should be given its role as guardian of the public purse with “the strength and credibility that it requires”.
He added: “The Treasury as an institution, an economic ministry, should be the engine that drives this new agenda.”
Johnson praised Javid’s “immense service” and said he had “friends and admirers on all sides”.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said Javid’s statement was “a damning attack” on Cummings’ dominance of the Johnson administration.