Cummings could quit in six months: Boris’s under-fire advisor is considering leaving after Brexit and civil-service shake-up are complete
- The Prime Minister’s aide will consider himself ‘largely redundant’ by Christmas
- Mr Cummings faced criticism for driving 260 miles to Durham during lockdown
- But the PM has refused to back widespread calls for the 48-year-old to resign
Dominic Cummings is considering quitting as Boris Johnson’s senior adviser later this year, well-placed sources said yesterday.
According to an insider who knows Mr Cummings well, he intends to step back from the political front line after the UK finally leaves the EU in December.
The suggestion that he could be out in six months was reinforced by a separate claim that he will consider himself ‘largely redundant’ by Christmas if he completes his shake-up of Whitehall mandarins by then.
Dominic Cummings is considering quitting as Boris Johnson’s senior adviser later this year, sources have claimed
The report appeared in the Spectator magazine, where Mr Cummings used to work, and where his wife Mary Wakefield is a commissioning editor.
The question marks over his long-term future follow a political furore over Mr Cummings’s decision to drive his wife and young son 260 miles to his parents’ farm in Durham at the start of the lockdown. While they were there, the couple visited a nearby beauty spot.
Boris Johnson has refused to back widespread calls – including from 40 Tory MPs – for Mr Cummings, 48, to resign, arguing it is time to ‘move on’ after a week-long controversy over his conduct.
The claim that Mr Cummings could be gone in six months will lead some to believe it is a face-saving measure to resolve a bitter clash between the Prime Minister and rebel Conservative MPs.
A defiant Mr Cummings could say he has resisted the latest in a long line of attempts by his political foes to sack him; Mr Johnson could say he has shown he is loyal to his inner circle and strong enough to withstand pressure from public opinion and the media.
Meanwhile, Mr Cummings’s Tory MP detractors could say that despite the six-month wait, they have achieved their objective of removing him from No 10 and defused fury among the party faithful.
The report appeared in the Spectator magazine, where Mr Cummings used to work, and where his wife Mary Wakefield (pictured, together in December 2019) is a commissioning editor
Mr Cummings joined Mr Johnson’s Downing Street team in July last year following his Conservative leadership bid, and was pivotal in the success of the December General Election campaign
Mr Cummings’s allies insist his exit is not connected to the lockdown rumpus and that he ‘never intended’ to stay in Downing Street after achieving his two main aims: cutting the UK’s last ties with Brussels and reforming the Civil Service. The former is due to take place on December 31 when Britain’s Brexit ‘transition period’ is scheduled to end.
Officials say one of the reasons Mr Johnson is digging his heels in over Mr Cummings is that he sees his hard-line anti-EU adviser as essential to maintaining the Government’s resolve to stick to the New Year deadline.
Political campaigner Mr Cummings masterminded the Brexit victory in the 2016 EU referendum and played a vital role in helping Mr Johnson win an election landslide in December.
The Spectator report said that by Christmas, Mr Cummings expects to have completed his campaign to recruit a new tier of talented and high-powered individuals from the private sector or academia to take charge of Government departments.
Mr Cummings, a multi-purpose political strategist, spin doctor and self-styled ‘disrupter’ for Mr Johnson, has made no secret of his disdain for the stuffy, traditional ‘Sir Humphrey’-style Whitehall permanent secretaries as portrayed in the 1980s TV satire, Yes Minister.
Mr Cummings declined to comment last night.