Dominic Cummings: Five of the most controversial moments from Boris Johnson’s senior adviser

Aide who led Brexit campaign faces claims he breached coronavirus lockdown

Ever since he rose to prominence as the campaign director for Vote Leave, Dominic Cummings’ political career has been defined by controversy.

Boris Johnson’s senior adviser is seen by his supporters as an unconventional but highly effective strategist, while his opponents have labelled him arrogant and anti-democratic.

This weekend, Mr Cummings found himself in the most high-profile scandal of his career so far after reports claimed he broke lockdown rules twice by travelling from London to Durham.

A strategist who has long claimed the elite in Westminster are out of touch with voters has now found himself on the wrong side of public opinion, according to a YouGov poll on Saturday which suggested 52 per cent of Britons thought he should resign.

As his position as one of the UK’s most powerful political advisers is under threat, here is an overview of some of Mr Cummings’ most controversial moments.

The Vote Leave bus

As the campaign director for Vote Leave (the official pro-Brexit campaign), Mr Cummings was the man behind the widely-disputed campaign bus claim that the UK would give £350m a week to the NHS after leaving the EU.

The claim – “We send the EU £350m a week, let’s fund our NHS instead” – was later proven to be untrue, but it is still considered to be one of key factors in helping the Leave side win the referendum.

In February 2017, Mr Cummings suggested the bus was one of the key reasons why the Leave campaign was successful.

“Would we have won without immigration? No. Would we have won without £350m/NHS? All our research and the close result strongly suggests no,” he said.

“Would we have won by spending our time talking about trade and the single market? No way.”

Contempt of parliament

Following the fallout from the EU referendum, MPs called for Mr Cummings to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating fake news to answer questions about his work at Vote Leave.

When he failed to appear for questioning, he was found to be in contempt of parliament and accused of showing a “total disregard” for the authority of the committee by Damian Collins, then-chair of the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee.

Mr Cummings claimed he was willing to speak to MPs but said he told Mr Collins to “get lost” after he was sent a summons.

“My offer to give evidence to MPs remains open. As does my reasonable demand that ALL OF US ARE UNDER OATH TO TELL THE TRUTH. I hope they take it up but am not hopeful,” he wrote on his blog.

The dismissal of Sonia Khan

In August last year, Mr Cummings fired Sonia Khan – a special adviser to the Treasury – without the permission or knowledge of then-chancellor Sajid Javid.

Ms Khan was escorted from Downing Street by a police officer after being accused of misleading Mr Cummings about contact with the former chancellor Phillip Hammond.

Dal Babu, former chief superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, called the incident “a shocking abuse of armed officers” and Ms Khan launched an unfair dismissal case this year.

In a meeting following the sacking, Mr Cummings is reported to have told a team of special advisers: “If you don’t like how I run things, there’s the door.”

In March, a government special adviser called Lynn Davidson was also sacked after she confronted Mr Cummings over his “unkindness” towards ministerial aides.

His role on the Sage committee

Last month, it was revealed that Mr Cummings had attended the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) – an independent body which has been advising the government on its response to coronavirus.

The attendance raised concerns about Sage’s political independence and about whether Mr Cummings had been interfering in the meetings.

Downing Street said it was “factually wrong and damaging to sensible public debate” to suggest that scientific advice was affected by government advisers attending the group.

However, Sir David King, a former government scientific adviser, told The Guardian: “If you are giving science advice, your advice should be free of any political bias. That is just so critically important.”

Earlier this year, Mr Cummings also denied a report in The Sunday Times which claimed he had set out the government’s strategy as “herd immunity, protect the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad”.

The hiring of Andrew Sabisky

In January, Mr Cummings sent out a call for “misfits and weirdos” to apply for jobs in government to help shake up the system.

That call is understood to have led to the hiring of Andrew Sabisky, an aide whose past comments on eugenics, race and the enforced uptake of contraception sparked outrage.

Sky News found comments under Mr Sabisky’s name in 2014 which suggested there could be “genetic reasons” for differences between races in intelligence and suggested this could be taken into account in immigration policy.

The aide eventually resigned from his post over the backlash, citing “media hysteria” over his old comments which he said had become a “distraction”.