Dominic Cummings

Michael Gove has inflamed tensions with Piers Morgan after he said he received “good advice” from colleagues to boycott Good Morning Britain (GMB). Morgan accused Gove of “suppressing free speech” after the minister admitted he he had been “told” to avoid the show. Referencing a Scottish anecdote, Gove said: “When you get good advice from your colleagues, […]

Another Vote Leave veteran has walked out of Downing Street following the resignation of ally Dominic Cummings. Special adviser Cleo Watson handed in her resignation to Number 10 just weeks after former Vote Leave mastermind Cummings and communications expert Lee Cain resigned. Watson worked on the Brexit campaign before joining government under Theresa May, before […]

Not much to talk about this week, eh! After a tumultuous week in Downing Street, even by Johnson standards, all attention must now be focussed on whether or not widely-tipped Arthur Pendragon will get the key post of chief of staff. Or will the PM’s fiancée, Queen Guinevere, and spin medic, Morgana Stratton, use their […]

Boris Johnson and his former senior adviser Dominic Cummings are set to appear in a special edition of the Beano. BeanOLD, produced for older readers reflecting on the year 2020, will be a pull-out inside the regular Beano and will see Dennis the Menace’s parents look back on Zoom quizzes, home-schooling, delayed Bond films and […]

Rather than a reset can’t we just rewind by four years back to June 2016? With the departures of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain there has been much discussion of this being an opportunity for the PM to ‘reset’. Personally I would prefer a ‘rewind’, specifically to that point in June 2016, before we broke […]

He might have gone, but Dominic Cummings has left a poisonous legacy which will cause untold harm to the UK, says JAMES BALL. Pity poor Dominic Cummings, who entered Number 10 last year believing he could transform a nation, and exited last week having accomplished little more than a series of blundering encounters with the media […]

Robert Jenrick has suggested that “changes in government” – alluding the resignation of Dominic Cummings -are behind the end of the 201-day boycott of Good Morning Britain (GMB). In a veiled swipe at Dominic Cummings, Jenrick, the minister for housing and communities, said that changes within Downing Street “over the last few days” meant ministers were […]

A former Tory minister has challenged claims Boris Johnson will be ‘different’ without Dominic Cummings.  Stephen Dorrell, who served as a health secretary under John Major’s government, said it was unlikely that the prime minister would change tact now that his most senior and controversial adviser has resigned. Speaking with the LBC’s Nick Ferrari, the former cabinet […]

The theatrical resignation of the PM’s chief adviser takes ALASTAIR CAMPBELL back to a piece of advice given to him by Princess Diana in the 1990s. Let’s start with a couple of people who are good at their job, and then move on to the government. Emma Corrin is an actress. Peter Morgan is a writer, […]

Dominic Cummings’ departure marks the “beginning of the end” for Boris Johnson, an ally of the prime minister has warned. According to the Mail on Sunday, supporters of Johnson now fear that the former senior aide will lead to a “guerilla operation” from Cummings causing Brexiteers to destabilise the prime minister to make the way for […]

The head of a Brexiteer think tank says a Vote Leave mastermind leaving Downing Street “makes post-Brexit Britain more likely to be very similar to a Britain inside the EU, and possibly worse”. Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Bow Group, said that without Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings the government will see more “adherence […]

The resignation of Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings will have no impact on crucial Brexit negotiations, environment secretary George Eustice said. After days of turmoil in Number 10, which saw the exit of the prime minister’s right-hand man Cummings and Johnson’s director of communications Lee Cain, Eustice insisted talks with the EU on a future trade […]

The fallout of Dominic Cummings’ departure from government continues, with a newspaper claiming the aide said Johnson was “indecisive” and that Michael Gove was left to provide clarity on decisions. Cummings left his role after a power struggle that has rocked the administration, amid claims he had briefed against Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie […]

Nigel Farage has claimed the exit of Boris Johnson’s top aide from Downing Street means a “Brexit sell-out” is looming. Brexit Party leader Farage said he had never liked the prime minister’s outgoing chief adviser Dominic Cummings, but admitted he was concerned about the consequences of his departure. Cummings left Number 10 carrying a box […]

Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain will continue to work for the prime minister and Downing Street until mid-December, Number 10 has insisted. Boris Johnson’s senior adviser was seen leaving No 10 carrying boxes on Friday evening amid reports he had quit his post with immediate effect. Cummings and Cain, who resigned as communications chief, will still […]

A BBC News presenter has struggled to show “journalistic balance” over the resignation of Boris Johnson’s senior aide Dominic Cummings, as she mocked some of the responses he received to a tweet highlighting his resignation. Cummings was seen leaving Number 10 with a box of possessions, prompting speculation about his future, before it was revealed that […]

Downing Street has revealed Dominic Cummings has resigned with immediate effect after pictures emerged of him appearing to clear his desk. The news comes after Boris Johnson’s senior adviser was seen leaving No 10 with what appeared to be a cardboard box full of belongings. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg reported that Cummings spoke to the […]

A radio caller has said he thinks Dominic Cummings is leaving Downing Street because his plans to reform Westminster had been ‘ruined’ by the coronavirus. Dan from Warwick suggested Cummings had quit because of a lack of funding to support radical reforms to the way government and public services function. The prime minister most senior adviser confirmed on […]

Downing Street has denied reports there will be a softening of the UK’s position on Brexit following the departure of key Vote Leave officials from No 10. The prime minister’s official spokesman acknowledged time was “in short supply” if they were to get an agreement before the Brexit transition period expires at the end of the […]

Alastair Campbell has warned that Boris Johnson is “days away” from brokering a “terrible” Brexit deal now that his key adviser has announced his resignation. The New European‘s editor-at-large said the UK was on course to crash out of the Brexit transition period on January 1, or be subject to a ‘bad’ trade deal. Speaking on the news […]

A German MEP has claimed Downing Street is in a state of paralysis caused by Dominic Cummings’ announced departure and was now hindering Brexit trade talks. Manfred Weber, the leader of the largest party in the European parliament, said Downing Street was currently in a”chaotic situation” following the announcement. The prime minister’s adviser acknowledged on […]

A former board member of the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign has dismissed suggestions that Boris Johnson has too many Leavers in his government. Despite an attempt by Johnson to pack his cabinet with supporters of Brexit, and the prime minister’s inner circle containing key Vote Leave officials, a senior Tory MP has denied they have […]

A former adviser to Boris Johnson has delivered a withering assessment of Vote Leave’s impact on the prime minister’s ability to govern. Guto Harri, who was Johnson’s communications director when he was mayor of London, said the group of pro-Brexit advisers in Downing Street led by Dominic Cummings had long been undermining the prime minister’s office. Harri told […]

Michael Gove has been challenged to pick which unelected bureaucrat he supports in the internal war in Number 10. During questions in the House of Commons, the Cabinet Office minister was asked to decide whether he was on the team of “Dom or Carrie”. It came as director of communications Lee Cain resigned, and chief […]

Dominic Cummings was the adviser who refused to play by the rules of conventional politics and became no stranger to the spotlight. At the start of 2020, he wrote on his blog of wanting to become “much less important – and within a year largely redundant”, with reports suggesting his departure from Downing Street will […]

A senior Conservative MP is expecting a return of “respect, integrity and trust” in Downing Street after the resignation of Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings. Sir Bernard Benkin, the chairman of the Commons Liaison Committee, was asked to give his view after reports Cummings would leave the heart of the government at the end […]

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 […]

A former aide to then chancellor Sajid Javid who was escorted out of Downing Street by police officers has settled an employment tribunal claim with the Treasury, reportedly for a five-figure sum. Former Treasury special adviser Sonia Khan was fired by Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings last year. The settlement means Cummings no longer […]

Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser Dominic Cummings is reportedly set to leave his Downing Street position by the end of the year. Cummings told the BBC that “rumours of me threatening to resign are invented” after speculation that he would follow communications director Lee Cain in leaving Number 10. However, he said that his “position […]

Boris Johnson has been urged to get rid of the second “Kray Brother” running Downing Street in a warning about his senior aide Dominic Cummings. The prime minister has been told by senior Tories to “get a grip” after being left weakened by war in No 10 in the middle of the second Covid wave […]

DAVID BLUNKETT and MATTHEW FLINDERS warn that Dominic Cummings’ technocracy model for government lacks emotional and political understanding. They call for Boris Johnson to ditch it. If crises bring with them new opportunities to think afresh, then the combined impact of Brexit and COVID has been to focus attention on the capacity and structure of the […]

Durham Police has been accused of giving Boris Johnson’s senior adviser “special treatment” when he was investigated over his trip to the north of England during the first lockdown. It is claimed that Cummings was shown a key statement “as a courtesy” before it was made public. The force had explained why it was being […]