Tories come out to disown Dominic Cummings amid hope for ‘reset’ at No 10

Veteran Conservative MP says he regrets defending aide for breaking lockdown rules

Dominic Cummings leaving No 10 on Friday (Reuters)

Conservative MPs have taken to the airwaves to disown Dominic Cummings and called for a “reset” at Downing Street, following the departure of Boris Johnson’s controversial chief adviser.

The former top aide left No 10 for the last time on Friday following internal battles about the balance of power within the government.

Speaking on Saturday morning former cabinet minister David Davis said he hoped that the “Byzantine-style inwardness of Downing Street” would be ending, claiming that Mr Cummings’s “relationship with the prime minister fell off a cliff”.

Theresa May’s former chief of staff Gavin Barwell meanwhile said the departure was an “opportunity” to improve the Downing Street operation.

And veteran Conservative MP Crispin Blunt said he regretted coming out to support the adviser when he came under pressure for breaking lockdown rules.

Asked whether he should have stood by Mr Cummings, Mr Blunt told Times Radio: “With the benefit of hindsight, no. However, you’ve got to make a call about what is seen to be fair and proper in the circumstances and Boris made a call on that.”

Former Brexit secretary Mr Davis, who was once described as “thick as mince” by the outgoing aide, said: “The truth is, I think for a long time, the prime minister was very dependent on Mr Cummings.”

Mr Davis said Tory backbenchers had come to “a general feeling that the power has been hoarded in Downing Street” and that the “normal relationship” with the party’s MP had been “side-lined”.

“And at one level, as I said, Boris [Johnson] will want to reset Government,” he said. "In essence, Mr Cummings has a very confrontational style.

“He has a very centralising style, and, whilst there are things he is right about, a clash with other people eventually turned against him, it is said.”

Mr Davis added: “The relationship with the prime minister fell off a cliff. And once that’s gone, it’s gone.”  

Lord Barwell, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It feels to me that there’s an opportunity here for [the prime minister] to get his Downing Street operation more harmonious and more effective.

“To rebuild relations with Conservative MPs, the parliamentary party. And, perhaps, to set a less confrontational and more unifying tone, that is maybe more in tune with his natural instincts.”

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith meanwhile wrote in the Daily Telegraph that Mr Cummings’s influence had led to “a ramshackle operation in the hands of one man”.

Former Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers described the departing aides as “pretty dismissive of backbenchers”, adding: “I do think it's important that whoever takes over has a different approach.”

And former attorney general Dominic Grieve - who had the whip withdrawn after rebelling on a key Brexit vote before losing his seat in the 2019 election, told Times Radio: “I consider that he’s created mayhem in government”.

“The whole of his period in government has been marked by a slide in standards so that the Number 10 press office has been used as a vehicle for distributing smears, untruths and lies which was very obvious in the autumn of last year and the period around prorogation and the run up to the general election.

“This year it’s difficult not to say that he’s created nothing except chaos with the Prime Minister.

“Whether it’s the handling of Covid and his own behaviour, whether it’s the Internal Markets Bill because quite apart from being utterly wrong in violating international law, that has blown up in the face of the Government and led to a massive rebellion in the Commons and the House of Lords and something of a crisis associated with that.”

Mr Cummings and Lee Cain, the former director of communications who resigned on Thursday, are expected to still be employed until the middle of next month, during which they will work from home.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Mr Cummings left his post with a broadside against the prime minister, who he told allies was “indecisive”.

The outgoing aide said that he and Mr Cain often had to rely on de facto deputy Michael Gove to make decisions. 

The turmoil comes in a crucial week for the government, amid a coronavirus lockdown and crunch-point in Brexit talks.

Sir Edward Lister has been announced as the prime minister’s the interim chief of staff pending a permanent appointment. The prime minister's spokesperson James Slack will replace Mr Cain as director of communications in the New Year.