Now press the No10 reset button, Boris

SIX months ago the mail passionately urged the Prime minister to sack his chief adviser dominic Cummings.

Quite apart from his arrogant and brutish behaviour, mr Cummings flouted lockdown rules by driving 260 miles to County durham – then dissembled about the reasons why.

His reckless indifference to the Government’s own rules severely undermined public trust and blasted a gaping hole in Boris Johnson’s ‘we’re all in this together’ message.

At the time we said: ‘For his own good and the good of the country, the Pm must divest himself of his turbulent lieutenant and solve this problem once and for all.’ If only mr Johnson had taken our advice.

Because although mr Cummings has at last been shunted into the departure lounge, the damage done to the Government’s credibility in the intervening period has been immense.

It’s true he was a superb campaigner in the eu referendum and the 2019 election, when he played a key role in helping mr Johnson secure a landslide majority.

In power, he was a liability. He became a lightning rod for anti-Tory sentiment after the durham trip, and downing Street under his sway was a febrile, paranoid bunker, in which loyalty was valued above everything and governance was degraded.

Civil servants, Tory mPs, even Cabinet ministers were treated with open disdain by mr Cummings and the clique around him – notably his chief disciple Lee Cain.

Like schoolyard bullies, they seemed to take pleasure in persecuting special advisers and generally treating good people badly.

Yet they themselves presided over a stream of crass errors on vital issues from care homes to PPe. For people who were supposed to be able to ‘sell’ a message, their communication skills proved lamentable.

Consequently, having swept into No10 on a wave of optimism, mr Johnson looked dull and hapless, reacting to events rather than making the political weather.

As he appointed the Cummings gang, mr Johnson bears heavy responsibility for this car crash. Thankfully, he’s now cleaning out the stables with commendable speed.

Having i nitially said he’d stay until Christmas, mr Cummings was invited to clear his desk yesterday. He wasn’t marched out by an armed policeman, like Treasury special adviser Sonia Khan when he sacked her. But the effect was not dissimilar. mr Cain was also given his marching orders.

It’s what happens next, however, which will define mr Johnson’s premiership.

His most important task is to reconnect with his party. ministers, backbenchers and activists have all been frozen out for far too l ong. respectful, i nclusive collegiate government must be restored.

Boris has undoubtedly lost some of his trademark bounce in recent months, but for all the mis- steps, things are beginning to turn his way.

The vaccine is the best possible news. Figures suggest the economy could bounce back more quickly than anticipated (if he doesn’t destroy it with endless lockdowns). And mass testing is starting to show results.

While these certainly remain perilous times, especially with Brexit also coming down the track, he can capitalise on these advantages to win back public confidence. First though, he needs to reflect and reboot.

For all his Covid misfortunes (and follies), mr Johnson still has the potential to be a great One-Nation Tory prime minister. But to succeed, he desperately needs a strong Cabinet and a united party behind him.

With the cult of Cummings being consigned to history, this can be the start of his renaissance.