Grant Shapps claims that Dominic Cummings 'will be missed'

Transport secretary Grant Shapps during a media briefing in Downing Street on coronavirus (COVID-19) - Credit: PA

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said that Dominic Cummings “will be missed” when he leaves No 10 but “advisers do come and go”.

Asked why Boris Johnson’s chief adviser will be departing, Shapps told Sky News: “As he wrote right at the beginning of the year in his own words, he planned to make himself largely redundant this year with the big thing that he worked on, of course, which was Brexit, coming to an end at the end of the transition period, which is December 31.

“Of course, the other big thing is helping to ensure we have the roll-out mass testing to defeat this virus. Both these things are on the near-term horizon now.”

He continued: “In any government you require people who are going to shake things up and come along with ideas, and he’s actually been that person.

“So I have to tell you I’ve enjoyed working with him, we haven’t always agreed over everything, that’s everything right and that’s how it should be. And you need people in government who do that.

“He will be missed but then again we’re moving into a different phase and Brexit will be, we’ve already left Europe, but the transition period will be over and things move on, and advisers do come and go.”