Boris Johnson will cause ‘carnage’ if allowed to stay on as caretaker prime minister, Dominic Cummings says

Former chief aide to outgoing prime minister says he is ‘playing for time and will try to stay’

Boris Johnson will cause “carnage” if he’s allowed to stay on as caretaker prime minister during a leadership contest, Dominic Cummings has said.

The former chief advisor to Mr Johnson called for his former boss to be “evicted today”, saying he is “playing for time and will try to stay”.

He said deputy prime minister Dominic Raab should be made interim prime minister by Thursday evening.

Mr Johnson is set to step down as prime minister today, but has signalled he intends to stay on as a caretaker until a new Tory leader is elected, probably in October – creating a two-month period of uncertainty.

The interim is normally uncontroversial, but never before has a prime minister initially refused to leave power after a cabinet revolt, or previously broken other laws and conventions.

On Thursday morning, Mr Cummings tweeted: “Evict today or he’ll cause carnage, even now he’s playing for time and will try to stay.

“No ‘dignity’, no ‘interim while leadership contest’. Raab should be interim PM by evening.”

The news of Mr Johnson’s imminent resignation came after a fatal onslaught of resignations in protest over his leadership.

Worried senior Tories have said they wanted him to be forced out of No 10 immediately, fearing further damage after he bent the constitution in a desperate bid to stay in power.

The slew of more than 50 resignations continued on Thursday morning, with Michelle Donelan’s departure as education secretary just 35 hours into the role making her the fifth cabinet minister to quit.

Mr Johnson’s new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi also publicly urged him to “do the right thing and go now”, as Suella Braverman revealed ambitions to replace him as prime minister while still in post as attorney general.

The dramatic collapse in support came after it emerged Mr Johnson promoted Tory MP Chris Pincher to a role with responsibility for MPs’ welfare, despite knowledge of misconduct claims against him.