British PM Boris Johnson's aide Dominic Cummings quits
Departures of controversial strategist and another adviser leave British govt in disarray
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mr Dominic Cummings leaving No. 10 Downing Street on Friday. In the first turbulent months of Mr Boris Johnson's premiership last year, the aide waged a campaign against anti-Brexit sympathisers inside the governing Conservative Party, forcing some rebels out for good. Then he helped steer Mr Johnson towards a historic election victory last December, winning the biggest Conservative majority in more than 30 years.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON • Mr Dominic Cummings has quit as Mr Boris Johnson's most powerful aide and will leave the British government before the end of the year, throwing the direction of the Prime Minister's entire political project into doubt.
The resignation brings to an end 17 months of combative and often controversial influence by a small group of pro-Brexit officials over the British government.
Mr Cummings was photographed leaving No. 10 Downing Street carrying a box late on Friday. Later in the evening, the Prime Minister's spokesman announced that Mr Johnson's chief strategic adviser Edward Lister would become temporary chief of staff.
Mr Cummings was the second key adviser to Mr Johnson to go in the space of 48 hours this past week after tensions blew up over the way the Prime Minister's inner circle operates.
Late on Wednesday, communications director Lee Cain - who worked with Mr Cummings and Mr Johnson to win the 2016 Brexit referendum - announced he was standing down.
British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps downplayed the departure of Mr Cummings.
"Advisers come and go," he said in an interview with Sky News.
The government will stay focused on the big issues, including the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, rather than "who happens to be in and out", he added.
Mr Cummings has been at the Premier's side since he took power in July last year, and masterminded the successful Brexit referendum campaign that catapulted Mr Johnson into the front rank of British politics three years earlier.
His departure will deprive Mr Johnson of his most important adviser and strategist, who has wielded huge influence over all aspects of government policy, from its pandemic response to Brexit and economic reform.
Mr Cain and Mr Cummings were the two closest aides to Mr Johnson in his political team and he will feel their absence.
It is a critical time for Britain, with the country in a second national lockdown over the pandemic and the death rate from the coronavirus rising again.
Mr Johnson also has just a few days to finalise a Brexit trade deal with the European Union before it is too late. Mr Cummings' departure in December will coincide with the end of the UK's transition arrangements with the bloc, but Mr James Slack, Mr Johnson's spokesman, said it is "simply false" to say his exit will soften the government's stance.
"The government's position in relation to the future trade agreement negotiations is unchanged," Mr Slack told reporters.
"We want to reach a deal, but it has to be one which fully respects the sovereignty of the UK."
DIVISIVE FIGURE
The presence of Mr Cummings alongside Mr Johnson at the top of government has always been controversial.
In the first turbulent months of Mr Johnson's premiership last year, the aide waged a campaign against anti-Brexit sympathisers inside the governing Conservative Party, forcing some rebels out for good and ripping up political conventions.
Then he helped steer Mr Johnson towards a historic election victory last December, winning the biggest Conservative majority in more than 30 years on a platform to "level up" economically neglected regions of the UK.
But when the pandemic hit at the start of the year, the Cummings project ran into a wall.
All government focus was turned to combating Covid-19 and Mr Cummings himself inevitably became part of the story.
In May, Mr Johnson put his own authority on the line to defend Mr Cummings, who was accused of breaking lockdown rules by driving more than 400km to seek childcare help when the public were being ordered to stay at home.
The Premier was so determined to keep Mr Cummings that he appeared in public at press conferences and in Parliament to answer questions and repeatedly defend his adviser's actions.
Mr Cain announced he was standing down as Mr Johnson's director of communications in a statement on Wednesday evening.
"It was an honour to be asked to serve as the Prime Minister's chief of staff," Mr Cain said, following reports that he had been lined up for the role by Mr Johnson.
It is not clear why Mr Cain did not take up that role. According to one version of events, Mr Cain and Mr Cummings had lobbied the Prime Minister to give Mr Cain that coveted position.
But Mr Johnson was unhappy that the appointment was made public in Wednesday's newspapers before he had reached a final decision, people familiar with the matter said.
BLOOMBERG
