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rehe resignation of a government adviser rarely makes big headlines, even in London politics obsessed circles. But British politics has long since ceased to be a normal moment and, anyway, its current top representatives do not belong to the conventional category.
In the front row Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief strategist since the summer of 2019. The 48-year-old adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson left the UK government headquarters in London early in the evening, heavily loaded, as can be see in the photos and videos. He will step down from his post with immediate effect, the BBC reported. The Palestinian Authority news agency, citing unidentified sources, wrote that it would continue to work until mid-December.
Cummings always styled himself as “Westminister Weirdo,” an outsider in a hooded sweatshirt and wool hat. However, your legacy is much more important than your appearance.
Without the 48-year-old, there might have been no Brexit and no Prime Minister Johnson. It was only in 2016 that Cummings managed to say yes to leaving the EU with its slogan “Take back control”. Three years later, he helped the Conservative chief win a powerful majority in the lower house with “Let’s End Brexit.”
His sudden withdrawal from the Downing Street center of power therefore represents a turning point for the Prime Minister and is a clear indication that Johnson is looking for a new beginning. Because the burden of challenges is overwhelming – the number of new corona infections and deaths in the country continues to rise.
Economic output in the third quarter contracted almost ten percent compared to the previous year. Public confidence in the government continues to plummet due to its miserable handling of the pandemic. The Labor Party, led by Keir Starmer, has established itself as a powerful opposition.
Meanwhile, talks on an urgently overdue trade deal with the EU are stalled. Even if there is still a deal in the final meters, the consequences of the departure for the British will be painfully felt from the beginning of January. From the traffic jams in the English Channel to the rise in food prices and the destruction of jobs.
At the same time, Johnson’s choice of Joe Biden means that compromise rather than confrontation is now the spirit of the age, even in tough negotiations with Europeans. Donald Trump had promised Johnson several times that he would balance a tough cut with the continent through a “great deal” with the United States. Multilateralist Biden, on the other hand, makes it clear that he will not tolerate Johnson’s nefarious Brexit tactics. Especially since the Briton has jeopardized the Northern Ireland peace deal, which the Irish-born Biden held sacred.
In this situation, Johnson cannot allow Downing Street to plunge into internal trench warfare. In lieu of crown measures, the nation has been debating details and personal intrigues in London’s powerhouse for weeks. Cummings and communications chief Lee Cain, who had resigned the day before, are considered “Brexit Boys.” They led the successful “Vote Leave” campaign in 2016, in which Johnson was the driving force and Cummings was the brains.
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Source: WELT / Philipp Reichelt
Immediately after Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, resigned, the new prime minister put Cummings on the switch points in Downing Street in the summer of 2019. A clear announcement that the spirit of the Brexit campaign and its motto “Us against the establishment” was finally the policy of the government. As a result, Johnson not only faced his own parliamentary group, who did not want to participate in his brutal Brexit course. He even tried to shut down the House of Commons by taking a mandatory recess and messing with the Supreme Court.
Johnson was behind his senior advisor for a long time
But the miserable crisis management in the pandemic strengthened Cummings’ opponents who sit in the government apparatus and the conservative faction and were excluded from the Prime Minister’s decisions. The senior adviser reportedly no longer allowed even the big conservatives to get close to the prime minister. Johnson’s loyalty and dependence on Cummings seemed limitless.
Even when the chief strategist broke all regulations during the first confinement and drove across England to his parents, the prime minister was behind the confidants. Although the latter evidently undermined the will of the citizens to obey the regulations of the Crown.
Recently, however, critics who saw Cummings and Cain as the wrong choice have also increased in Johnson’s vicinity. You can campaign, but not govern, it is an increasingly popular judgment. In the end, Johnson’s fiancee Carrie Symonds is said to have stepped in because the prime minister wanted to promote his communications director, Cain, to office manager.
The former Conservative Party press chief and mother of Johnson’s six-month-old son Wilfried agreed with Cain about the caliber for Tob’s job. Obviously, Symonds was opening doors with him, and the prime minister decided to cut off his loyal but highly controversial advisers.
Discontent in the ministries
Johnson was apparently also aware that in the worst crisis since World War II, he could not afford a permanent dispute with the apparatus. Members of the government report that rebellion and resentment in the ministries have recently increased. Officials and even the Prime Minister’s employees did not want to accept the brutal control of Cummings and Cain, which the two could not justify with a successful executive.
“The year 2021 gives the prime minister the opportunity to focus on a larger agenda. But to do that, your senior team has to work, ”says Jill Rutter, an expert at the Institute for Government. “For this, competition and the courage to fight must be qualifications, not blind loyalty.”
The UK will hold the G-7 presidency next year. In addition, the UN climate conference will be held in Glasgow. On these occasions Johnson wants to present himself as prime minister of a country that has international cooperation and is committed to the fight against climate change and for democracy. However, to do this, like other state leaders, you must first cope with the pandemic.
And the obstacle of leaving the EU. Cummings, who played such an important role in the failed management of both, left the field. Given his undeniable talent as a campaign strategist, his current withdrawal from British politics is unlikely to last.
