Dominic Cummings, the now-former chief adviser to Boris Johnson who was the driving force in the Vote Leave campaign in 2016, has accelerated his departure from 10 Downing Street, leaving the prime ministerial residence today carrying a cardboard box.
The unconventional Brexiteer, long a hate figure for EU loyalists and much of the mainstream media, had been due to step down by Christmas after a power struggle between staffers aligned with Cummings and Vote Leave on one hand and the Prime Minister’s liberal fiancée Carrie Symonds boiled over this week.
This resulted in Downing Street communications director and Cummings ally Lee Cain, who had been tipped for promotion to chief of staff, resigning, with speculation that Cummings himself would follow.
It looked for a time as if the chief adviser would indeed step down, but closer to the end of the year, as he had somewhat indicated he may do anyway in a January blog post.
However, that process appears to have rapidly accelerated over the course of the day, with Cummings ultimately walking out of the iconic Number 10 door carrying a cardboard box after a meeting between himself and the Prime Minister leading to it being “decided after upset in the team and [a] difficult week, best to go immediately,” according to BBC correspondent Laura Kuenssberg.
“This was all a slow-burning fuse but exploded fast when it finally happened! End of a very torrid era,” she added.
It is well documented that I have never liked Dominic Cummings but he has backed Brexit.
Seeing him leave Number 10 carrying a cardboard box tells me a Brexit sell-out is close. pic.twitter.com/Ysli7ZLCLY
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) November 13, 2020
The news had caused disquiet among Brexiteers, including Nigel Farage.
“It is well documented that I have never liked Dominic Cummings but he has backed Brexit,” remarked the veteran campaigner, currently in the process of relaunching his Brexit Party as the Reform Party.
“Seeing him leave Number 10 carrying a cardboard box tells me a Brexit sell-out is close,” Farage fretted.
With Cummings gone, it is understood that Carry Symonds’ faction in Downing Street is now in the ascendant, and that the Prime Minister will now focus on such matters as his “green agenda” and abandon “culture wars”, including the hitherto combative stance towards the mainstream media in general and the publicly-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in particular.
Report: Vote Leave Boss out as BoJo Adviser, PM to Push Green Agenda, End Culture Wars https://t.co/HAvlITyhZg
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 13, 2020
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