Tory daggers are drawn for untouchable Cummings as MPS look to escape this mess
When Dominic Cummings was in the middle of a media storm over his ill-advised trip to Barnard Castle, Cabinet ministers were told in no uncertain terms to throw their support behind Boris Johnson’s chief adviser.
Michael Gove, one of his closest allies, was among the first to go into bat for the former Vote Leave supremo, insisting “he didn’t break the letter of the guidelines”, while Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, even went so far as to suggest that “protecting one’s family is what any good parent does”.
Yet when the Prime Minister was on the receiving end of a series of highly personal and very damaging briefings last month, there was no such rearguard action. Mr Johnson stood accused of being “overburdened, underpaid and with a look of misery on his face” amid suggestions he was still suffering the effects of the Covid that nearly killed him in April.
It came after Sir Humphry Wakefield, Mr Cummings’s father-inlaw, reportedly told a visitor to Chillingham Castle, his Northumberland home, that the PM planned to quit in six months. Although Downing Street denied the claim, Sir Humphry never issued a retraction. Even when the normally supportive Spectator asked: “Where’s Boris?” and accused him of presiding over “disorder, debacle, rebellion, U-turn and confusion”, there was silence. A piece by Toby Young, long a cheerleader for Mr Johnson, suggesting he was “no longer fit to be Prime Minister and should step down as soon as he’s got Brexit done”, barely provoked a response either.
The episode illustrates what most senior Tories have been feeling ever since Mr Cummings, inset, decided to test out his eyesight on the A1. Amid much tea room talk about Mr Johnson’s future, the perception is that the PM’S right-hand man is more protected than the premier himself.
Having discussed “getting rid of Dom” for months now, cannier Conservatives – both inside and outside of Cabinet – have come to the conclusion that, as one put it: “Boris will never sack Dom, and Dom will never walk away from power.”
Yet this poses a significant problem to the growing number of party bigwigs who blame overburdened Mr Cummings for a three-fold failure on Covid. As one Cabinet minister put it this week: “Our response is all over place, and so is the comms and so is the politics.
“This over-centralised operation with Cummings pulling all the strings has failed. It’s caused a massive divide between the Prime Minister and his own party. There isn’t one Cabinet
minister – bar Michael [Gove] – who doesn’t secretly think Dom is at the root of all this.”
Although there has been some swivel-eyed hyperbole about Johnson being “finished”, right-minded Tories have no desire to “blow up” his administration before it even completes its first year. So an alternative plan is being hatched.
It would see Mr Cummings sidelined to focus on civil service reform while a new “chief of staff ” is brought in to form a “protective ring of steel” around the PM. “Dom is not going to go – that’s close to impossible,” added the minister. “But if there’s a counterbalancing force who the PM starts to listen to, who has actually got his back, then we could start to find a way out of this mess.”
The appointment of former Guardian journalist Allegra Stratton as Downing Street’s new press secretary is being hailed by some Tories as part of the solution. Unimpressed with No 10’s media operation, they are agitating for Lee Cain, the director of communications, to focus on reforming crossgovernmental comms, leaving Stratton to fight the PM’S corner on a day-to-day basis.
Well-liked Mr Cain, a former Mirror journalist, is already working on a project to cut all department press offices down to 30 staff.
Comparisons have already been made between the past six months and the first chaotic year of Mr Johnson’s mayoralty, when he was forced to fire four of his 12 appointed advisers within weeks of taking office. As the recent rebellion over the coronavirus rules has shown, Tories from all wings of the party are now galvanised behind the idea that change is needed – and fast. Mr Cummings is aware of what he describes as “the party management problem” but seemingly oblivious to
the idea he might be the cause. “Cummings hates Tory MPS and everyone knows it,” said one backbencher. “Yet what the Prime Minister seems to have failed to realise is that the parliamentary party will always be more loyal to him than Cummings ever will.”
Tories have always briefed aggressively against Mr Cummings – but these attacks have stepped up in recent days in a bid to destabilise his relationship with the PM, who gave him “special powers” when he appointed him in July 2019.
There has been much talk of Mr Cummings “cosying up to Rishi Sunak” as the Chancellor has been touted as a potential successor to the PM. A rumour has been going around that Mr Cummings gave Mr Johnson the same speech on the economy he offered to Mr Gove and Dominic Raab during last year’s Tory leadership race as evidence of his supposed double dealing.
Despite chairing the Covid-19 “Ops” committee, Mr Gove has recently been complaining about a “lack of access”, according to two separate sources. It follows reports that Mr Sunak wants local lockdowns to be decided by a committee of himself, the PM and Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary.
But MPS and ministers are also growing concerned about the narrow sphere of opinion reaching “the boss”. Following his departure from No 10 in February, Tim Montgomerie, the former editor of the Conservative Home website, described the Downing Street operation as “Dom’s frat house”, where dissent was treated with “retribution” and earning the disfavour of Mr Cummings was “fatal”.
“Everyone was dispensable,” he wrote. “Except Dom.” It came amid reports of Mr Johnson’s chief strategic adviser Sir Edward Lister having been sidelined. Isaac Levido, who spearheaded Mr Johnson’s general election win was rehired in March to sharpen the Government’s coronavirus response but suddenly returned to the private sector in July. Now there are some in Cabinet calling for Mr Levido
to return to the fold to help to restore Mr Johnson’s reputation as his approval rating continues on a downward trajectory.
“Isaac Levido is a name that inspires confidence at the top of the Tory party. As soon as he left, the Covid strategy went completely downhill.
“You need to have someone in there who hasn’t just got the PM’S confidence but the confidence of MPS. That person isn’t Dominic Cummings.”
Timing wise, Tories are pinning their hopes on a reshuffle and reset after the transition period ends on Dec 31. As one senior Tory source put it: “Boris clearly made the decision that Cummings was the man who could get Brexit done and he was bloody successful in that.” They added: “But it’s hard to argue he’s providing anything near that quality on Covid.
“No one seems to be pointing this out to the PM. They’re scared that if they bad mouth Cummings, it will get back to him and he’ll just be out to get them. That’s no way to run a government. A group of senior Tories need to get around Boris and say – you want to keep this guy, fine, but keep him at arm’s length. Get someone who will look after you. At the moment, there’s no one taking the bullets.”
It has been suggested that Mr Johnson could do with a Willie Whitelaw figure to transcend what many veteran Tories regard as an inexperienced Cabinet plagued by a lack of talent. Former leader Iain Duncan Smith has been touted as a possible candidate although there is no love lost between him and Mr Cummings. In 2003, after working for him for eight months, Mr Cummings wrote an article for The Daily Telegraph headlined: “Mr Duncan Smith is incompetent and must go.”
Lord Strathclyde, the former leader of the House of Lords, is also in the mix. “We’ve actually got Boris’s back, if only he would realise it,” said one MP. “But we cannot go on being treated with contempt.” Daggers have been drawn – and once again, Dominic Cummings is the Tories’ main target.
‘You need someone in there who hasn’t just got the PM’S confidence but the confidence of MPS. That person isn’t Dominic Cummings’