For a journalist given to hyperbole himself, Boris knows how to deliver a genuine political massacre

Jaws were dropping across Westminster as the new PM effectively eviscerated Theresa May’s cabinet, sacking or forcing out more than half of her top team

Political reporters are sometimes accused of reaching too easily for the violent vocabulary of massacres and bloodbaths to spice up otherwise dry accounts of men (and they are mostly men) being shuffled around from one desk job to another.

But Boris Johnson’s knife-wielding in his first hours of power was one of those political spectacles that truly lived up to the hype.

Jaws were dropping across Westminster as the new PM effectively eviscerated Theresa May’s cabinet, sacking or forcing out more than half of her top team as he constructed a tight-knit band of loyalists seemingly focused on the single goal of getting Brexit over the line in October.

Not only were key figureheads from the Vote Leave campaign – Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab – installed at the heart of cabinet, but Downing Street was stuffed with backroom staff from the team that gave you £350m on the side of a bus.

Foremost among them was Dominic Cummings, the maverick who coined the “Take Back Control” catchphrase and deployed digital data-mining techniques to relentlessly target susceptible voters with questionable claims about Brexit dividends and Turkish entry to the EU.

Known to most – if at all – for his portrayal by Benedict Cumberbatch in a TV drama on the Brexit battle, Cummings’ appointment was seen as a real signal of intent by Westminster insiders, both for his renown as a campaigner and his oft-stated disdain for traditional civil service practices.

For Johnson to put a man censured for contempt of parliament at the centre of his team sent a message that all bets were off, that Theresa May’s half-hearted attempts to build a consensus around a deal were well and truly dead and buried – and that the new PM may be limbering up for an early election.

For all Johnson’s claims to want to “unite the country”, few at Westminster saw his appointments as an attempt to construct a big tent or to reach out to those nervous at the prospect of a no-deal withdrawal.

While some pointed out that there were (marginally) more ministers who voted Remain than Leave attending Johnson’s cabinet, they were made up of those who had long-since dropped any opposition to Brexit – Sajid Javid, Matt Hancock – or publicly forsworn their earlier objections to the new PM’s agenda – Amber Rudd, Nicky Morgan.

Having grasped the wheel of the ship of state, Johnson’s appointments suggest he is intent on directing it at full speed on a collision course with anything which could stand in the way of Brexit.

Whether or not his crew have the ability and the parliamentary backing to force their way past the anti-no-deal majority in the Commons, resistance to renegotiation in Brussels and public uncertainty about leaving the EU without agreement, there can be no doubt that they have the determination to give it a try and – as Johnson has said – “do or die” in the attempt.

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor