Vote Leave mastermind Dominic Cummings will be out as the chief adviser to the prime minister by Christmas, according to reports, with Boris Johnson looking to end the “culture wars” and emphasise a “green” agenda in line with fiancée Carrie Symonds’ wishes.
Cummings’ impending fall follows what is said to follow an intensified bout of bitter infighting between the soon-to-be-former Chief Adviser and other former Vote Leave staffers and allies of Miss Symonds within 10 Downing Street, with an insider describing the prime minister’s official residence as “a nest of vipers”.
This culminated in Vote Leave alumnus and Cummings ally Lee Cain being tipped to be promoted from Director of Communications to Chief of Staff — but ultimately ending up leaving the prime ministerial team entirely after Symonds reportedly “vetoed” his elevation.
Post-Cummings, it is believed that Johnson intends to “build liberal, global Britain” and take a “softer and less dogmatic” stance on the British Union — rhetoric which has raised fears he will give the nod to a second divisive referendum on Scotland leaving the United Kingdom — according to sources who spoke to The Times.
The newspaper reports that Johnson is “expected to push hard on his green agenda” and “step back from so-called culture wars with institutions such as the BBC”, which Cummings was keen to stand up to.
Life after Dominic Cummings:
How Boris Johnson plans to reset his premiership with an end to the culture wars, a focus on the green agenda and a less dogmatic approach to Scotlandhttps://t.co/dn2ky4g9ET
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) November 13, 2020
Cummings appeared to tacitly confirm his coming departure in comments to BBC political reporter Laura Kuenssberg, telling her that “rumours of me threatening to resign are invented, rumours of me asking others to resign are invented” — a likely reference to reports that other Vote Leave veterans will walk out of No 10 with him — but that “my position [on leaving] hasn’t changed since my January blog”.
In that blog post, Cummings indicated that he intended to “improve performance and make me much less important — and within a year largely redundant”, although it hardly seems as though Downing Street will be passing into the hands of a regime of his choosing as he departs the centre stage.
The move has not been greeted with enthusiasm by Britain’s leading Brexiteers, who sense that the firm left-liberal shift at No 10 is bad news in terms of government policy.
“So the Leavers are leaving Downing Street,” remarked Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.
“Bad news for Brexit as the Tory party goes green.”
Claim: Establishment Journo Is BoJo’s New ‘White House’ Style Spox https://t.co/lIYuuL4SgG
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 8, 2020
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