Dominic Cummings has left his Downing Street job with immediate effect, sources have said, with Boris Johnson’s influential and controversial chief adviser ordered to leave by the prime minister after accusations of negative briefings.
Lee Cain, the No 10 communications chief and a key ally of Cummings, has also left his job immediately on the orders of Johnson, it is understood. Both Cain and Cummings had been due to stay on until Christmas.
One source said Cummings was told to go by the prime minister after accusations he had briefed against Johnson on Friday. The news emerged after Cummings was photographed leaving the front door of No 10 carrying a box.
The sudden departure of both key aides, and on Johnson’s instruction, increases the sense of infighting within No 10, and will embolden restive Conservative MPs, who have sought a revamp of what they see as a dysfunctional and secretive Downing Street operation.
There has been no official confirmation of the news. Cain’s departure was formally announced on Wednesday, but he was to have worked until Christmas. No 10 has yet to even formally confirm Cummings will leave at any point.
Cummings, like Cain a former key member of the Vote Leave campaign, shot to national notoriety in May after it emerged he had travelled from London to Durham with his family during lockdown and went on a day trip while there.
Cain had been offered the post of chief of staff but it sparked a backlash among MPs, ministers and others close to the prime minister, including his fiancee, Carrie Symonds. On Friday night No 10 said that Sir Edward Lister, the PM’s chief strategic adviser, would take on the role on an interim basis.
Sir Bernard Jenkin, the senior Tory backbencher who chairs the Commons liaison committee, which scrutinises the work of government, said Cummings’ departure was a chance to restore “respect, integrity and trust” between No 10 and Tory MPs.
“It’s an opportunity to reset how the government operates and to emphasise some values about what we want to project as a Conservative party in government,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I’m not surprised in a way that it is ending in the way it is. No prime minister can afford a single adviser to become a running story, dominating his government’s communications and crowding out the proper messages the government wants to convey. Nobody is indispensable.”
source https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/13/dominic-cummings-has-already-left-job-at-no-10-reports
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