Boris Johnson could reset his relationship with Conservative MPs, senior party figures said, after the departure on Friday of the UK Prime Minister’s influential but highly controversial chief adviser Dominic Cummings from Downing Street.
Mr Cummings was seen leaving Mr Johnson’s official residence and office on Friday night carrying a box, after tensions soared at the heart of government. It followed the announcement on Wednesday that communications chief Lee Cain, another key figure, would depart from the Prime Minister’s inner circle.
Both men, who played crucial roles in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union, were ordered out of Downing Street by Mr Johnson on Friday amid reports of an angry exchange over power in the government. It’s unclear if Mr Cummings and Mr Cain will leave their jobs immediately or stay on until December as initially planned.
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis said Mr Cummings’ public departure through the front of Mr Johnson’s residence was “almost certainly” because the adviser “decided he was going to leave an image” rather than exit via the back door.
"He chose to leave that image walking out with a box. He could have perfectly well put his coffee mug or whatever else was in it into his rucksack, but he didn't," he told the BBC.
But Mr Davis said it would help Mr Johnson “reset” his relationship with back bench Conservative MPs, who have often been at odds with Mr Cummings over the power he wielded and his apparent breaking of Covid-19 lockdown rules earlier this year.
“The photograph will last the weekend and people will remember it, but it’s not the key.
“And at one level, as I said, Boris will want to reset government and in a sense, that photograph does part of the resetting for him,” Mr Davis said.
When Mr Johnson rose to power in the summer of 2019, Mr Cummings cracked down on anti-Brexit Conservative MPs but helped drive the prime minister to a massive parliamentary majority last December on a promise to “level-up” deprived areas of the UK.
When Mr Cummings was accused of ignoring lockdown rules in the summer by driving more than 400 kms to get childcare, Mr Johnson stuck by his chief adviser.
Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative Party, said Mr Johnson had lost a large amount of goodwill through his support for Mr Cummings.
Mr Duncan Smith said the departure of the Prime Minister’s chief adviser would hopefully allow Mr Johnson to better deliver on his central policy themes – such as Brexit – and tackling Covid-19.
"It's an enormous and transformative agenda that will require a strong organisation based on skill, authority and experience and one that that includes MP's who have often felt semi-detached, ignored and dismissed by key advisers," he wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
Gavin Barwell, who served as the chief of staff of former prime minister Theresa May, said it offered Mr Johnson a chance to make his 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," he told the BBC.
