Behind the allegations against the British prime minister is a man with whom Boris Johnson worked long and closely. Dominic Cummings feels it is his duty to chase his former boss out of office.
In and of themselves, the allegations are so silly that they fit Boris Johnson well. The British Prime Minister has been under pressure for months because a series of parties were celebrated at his official residence at 10 Downing Street – mind you: during a partial lockdown that Johnson’s government had imposed on the English.
Johnson’s credibility is not at stake, he lost it long ago. For him it’s about the job. Behind most of the revelations, which have apparently been launched one after the other with a view to their effect on the public, is likely to be one and the same person: Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former chief adviser. Dethroning the prime minister is like repairing a sewer pipe: “an unpleasant but necessary job,” Cummings just told New York Magazine.
The revelations began in November 2021 with a report by The Mirror about a Christmas party from the previous year, on December 18, 2020. Such celebrations were banned in London at the time due to the pandemic. The day after the celebration, Johnson went before the press and announced “with a heavy heart” that Christmas could not go ahead as planned. Such details have been pointed out with relish by the British media in recent weeks.
When the allegations became known, Johnson initially denied everything: “In Number 10, all the rules were followed completely,” he said on December 1, 2021 in the House of Commons. But the revelations continue. Just under a week later, the broadcaster ITV published a Video on December 22, 2020, in which Johnson’s spokeswoman, Allegra Stratton, mocks a press conference in preparation for real briefings. When asked about a Christmas party, she says, to the laughter of the group, “It was a work meeting.” Stratton takes her hat the next day.
Another work meeting
It later emerged that Johnson had attended a garden party during the first lockdown in May 2020. Johnson initially denies everything, but then admits that he came into the garden “for 25 minutes”. “I would like to apologize for this,” he said in Parliament. He thought it was a work meeting.
On December 9, the British government announced an internal investigation into the celebrations. However, the official initially commissioned to do this has to give up the job again: his department had also violated lockdown rules. In the end, the investigation ends up with Sue Gray, a civil servant with cabinet rank. Your report is available today.
Apparently, Number 10 celebrated on a number of occasions, when saying goodbye to colleagues, on Johnson’s birthday – possibly also on the day Cummings was thrown out. Johnson’s wife Carrie gave a “victory celebration” in the apartment that belongs to the Prime Minister’s office, the Mail on Sunday wrote last weekend. There was dancing and drinking in the living room, among other things “The Winner Takes It All” by ABBA was played.
Carrie Johnson denied the report, but it has long been known that there were differences between her and Cummings. Cummings himself describes it this way: “Carrie liked him [Johnson] him in his ears and kept saying, ‘The media paints you as a puppet, but it’s you who won the election, you should be the one who comes out as the boss.'” Johnson “didn’t have the balls” to saying to his wife, “Listen, I’m Prime Minister, and that’s how I do it.”
“I’m the fucking king”
Cummings’ stated goal was to use Brexit to turn the political system upside down. In the Brexit election campaign, he headed the “Vote Leave” campaign and is credited with inventing the slogan “Take Back Control,” which right-wing populists around the world have adopted in a modified form. When Johnson became Prime Minister, Cummings moved to Downing Street with him. There he showed himself to be so powerful and self-confident that at some point it became too much for the Tories: In November 2020, the prime minister deposed the powerful string puller. Like an ordinary employee, he left Number 10 with a cardboard box in his hands.
Cummings does not seem to have gotten over this expulsion. in the “New York Magazine” he swears at Johnson and makes it clear that he thinks the Prime Minister is a narcissistic slacker. His own approach was that Johnson accepted “his limitations” and “that Number 10 worked in a certain way with him as Prime Minister”. But Johnson told him he was “the fucking king” and “I’ll do what I want”. That’s not okay, according to Cummings. “He’s not the king. He can’t do what he wants. If you understand that someone works like that, then you have a duty to get rid of him.”
Johnson wants to gain time first
Cummings posted some of his allegations against Johnson on his blog released. Incidentally, the 50-year-old had already caused a scandal at the beginning of the pandemic because – after he and his wife had been infected with Corona – he had driven more than 400 kilometers across the country to survive the illness in a house of his parents. This also violated the rules in force at the time.
However, the fact that Cummings does not have a pure corona vest does not relieve Johnson. His approval ratings have been plummeting for months. In a Yougov poll, 73 percent of Britons say he is doing a bad job as prime minister, while only 22 percent think his work is good. Johnson’s problem is that the allegations confirm all the clichés about aloof politicians that Johnson actually always wanted to refute with his self-portrayal as a messy political clown.
Whether Cummings will manage to “get rid of” his former boss is currently completely open. At the moment, Johnson is all about buying time. That could work: Sue Gray found evidence of such serious misconduct for her report that she gave material to the London police. Ironically, Johnson can use this: Because of the police investigation, Gray’s report was not published in full today, but was partially redacted. Johnson then apologized again in the House of Commons, but immediately switched to attack by praising himself for his Brexit and Corona policy.
The affair is not over with that. The Times predicts “months of trouble” ahead of Johnson. Cummings will no doubt do everything to ensure that this forecast comes true. A few days ago he announced on his blog that he would say more when Sue Gray’s report was available.