HAMMOND WADES INTO SACKED AIDE ROW
Former Chancellor rages that Downing Street’s reason for axeing adviser is ‘totally implausible’ . . . as MoS reveals glamorous ex-Sky presenter at centre of bust-up between PM and Sajid Javid
THE row over the sacking of one of Sajid Javid’s advisers by Downing Street deepened last night after former Chancellor Philip Hammond described the reasons for her dismissal as ‘totally implausible’.
Mr Javid was left ‘absolutely furious’ after Boris Johnson’s all-powerful aide Dominic Cummings fired Sonia Khan on Thursday evening for allegedly misleading him over the extent of her contact with Mr Hammond – her former boss at the Treasury and an avowed opponent of Mr Johnson’s Brexit strategy.
No10 has tried to defuse the row by insisting that reports of a rift between Mr Javid and Mr Johnson were ‘grossly exaggerated’.
Mr Javid confronted an ‘apologetic’ Mr Johnson on Friday to demand an explanation about why Ms Khan had been escorted out of Downing Street by police.
A spokesman for Mr Hammond said yesterday: ‘Sonia was a superb special adviser to Philip when he was Chancellor. But she’s a committed Brexiteer and passionate about leaving on October 31. The idea that she would leak to people trying to prevent No Deal is totally implausible. Where’s the motive?’
The row comes as The Mail on Sunday has learned that a former Sky News presenter is at the centre of the extraordinary row.
Poppy Trowbridge, who spent three years as a special adviser to Mr Hammond, has been a prominent figure in the media since leaving Government earlier this year, critiquing Mr Johnson’s Brexit strategy and warning about the risks of a No Deal.
According to sources, when Mr Cummings confronted Ms Khan and demanded to know which allies of Mr Hammond she had recently contacted – including Ms Trowbridge – he first asked her to unlock and hand over her Government phone.
While he was examining its contents he noticed that Ms Khan was scrolling ‘frantically’ through her personal phone deleting messages. Mr Cummings then forced Ms Khan to surrender her personal handset: although sources say that Ms Khan had ‘managed to clear most of her WhatsApp messages’, Mr Cummings spotted a recent voice call to Ms Trowbridge. It was at that point that he stripped her of her security pass and summoned the police.
Ms Khan was not available for comment yesterday but, ominously for No10, her friends said she was considering her next steps. One said: ‘She is in pieces over this. She is still in shock. It has damaged her career prospects and neither she nor Sajid will let it rest.’
Ms Trowbridge said: ‘I don’t know anything about the circumstances as I left Government several months ago.’
The row comes amid growing disquiet among some Cabinet Ministers about the power wielded by Mr Cummings. He has sacked four senior advisers in the past month. Critics have pointed out that all of the advisers were young women, but Mr Cummings furiously denies having a sexist agenda and has told advisers: ‘If you don’t like how I run things, there’s the door. F*** off.’
It is understood that other Cabinet Ministers say that they have had to intervene to protect their advisers from being dismissed after Mr Cummings raised ‘unfounded’ questions about their loyalty and competence. The sacking of Ms Khan – the second member of Mr Javid’s team to be axed since Mr Johnson came to power – is being seen within Government as a sign that No10 is asserting its authority over the Chancellor by stripping him of his autonomy. Allies of the Chancellor claim that the first he knew of the Government’s plans to cut fuel duty this autumn was when he read about it in last weekend’s Mail on Sunday.
A Downing Street source insisted that there was a ‘very strong relationship’ between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.
The source said: ‘One of Boris’s first acts as PM was to make sure that Sajid was invited to the daily 8.30, which sets the agenda for the day. They meet for dinner and have worked extremely closely on the Spending Review.’
Another No10 source said that the reports of a rift had been ‘grossly exaggerated’, and that Mr Cummings had recently acknowledged the excellent work of Treasury advisers preparing for this week’s Spending Review.
The source said: ‘Dom is very impressed by their work, and in particular that of Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak, who
‘If you don’t like it, there’s the door’
is clearly a rising star. The spending round was completed in three days – it normally takes three weeks. This was only because of the ability of No10 and No11 to work together.’
Mr Javid repeatedly refused to discuss Ms Khan’s sacking during an interview yesterday and said that he had a fantastic relationship with the Prime Minister.
He told the BBC that suggestions that Downing Street was not allowing him enough authority over the Treasury was ‘a picture painted by the Government’s opponents’.
Mr Javid added: ‘I’m not going to discuss any personnel issues, it wouldn’t be appropriate. The relationship is fantastic with the Prime Minister. Before he was Prime Minister, he is someone I got on with incredibly well. It’s a real privilege to work with him, to work closely so well on people’s priorities.’
Asked about his relationship with Mr Cummings, Mr Javid replied: ‘I’m not going to discuss personnel relationships. The Prime Minister is my boss and we work together, along with other Cabinet colleagues, to deliver, so I am not here to talk about particular individuals that are advisers in Downing Street.’
A No 10 source said: ‘Focus groups have told us that the public don’t care about parliamentary process. The Government will need to cut through and give the public a very simple choice – chaos and uncertainty with Labour, or in 62 days, delivering Brexit and moving on. Brussels now know we aren’t bluffing – and in mid-September the EU will know they need to have serious talks with us. Dom has made clear to us that our focus has to be on delivering on the public’s priorities on things like Brexit, education, violent crime, not Westminster bubble crap which only a couple of hundred people who all work in the same postcode care about.
‘The reason he’s been successful is because he knows how to build teams that do that.
‘Nobody knows what’s going to happen this week but as Dom said, the simple question for Tory MPs is whether they want to deliver on the result of the referendum or put Corbyn in No10 and turn the country into an international laughing stock.’
Mr Javid is expected to use the Spending Review on Wednesday to boost Britain’s position as a ‘key international player and great trading nation’, with millions of pounds extra pledged to enhance the UK’s military and diplomatic ties.
The review is likely to include a boost to the overall defence budget ‘to ensure the UK’s world-class Armed Forces can continue to be a force for good around the world’, according to a Treasury source, and a pledge of £46million for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Mr Javid said: ‘Britain has thrived as an open, free-trading nation. We shouldn’t be ashamed of being proud of our place in the world – we are, and will remain, a great nation with fantastic assets.’
‘It’s damaged Sonia’s career – she’s in pieces’