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LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings will continue to work until mid-December, and another senior aide will serve as temporary chief of staff, Johnson’s office said on Friday (November 13).
Cummings had previously been photographed leaving Johnson’s Downing Street office with a box in his arms, and several local outlets reported that he had resigned from his position with immediate effect.
Communications Director Lee Cain would also remain in office until mid-December.
“The prime minister today asked Sir Edward Lister to assume the post of chief of staff for an interim term pending a permanent appointment to the post,” a Downing Street spokesman said.
Cummings, the chief architect of the campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, has been a divisive figure within the Conservative government since Johnson became prime minister 16 months ago.
His position weakened earlier this year after he drove hundreds of miles across England after contracting COVID-19, violating national lockdown rules and leaving the impression that elite officials didn’t have to obey the same rules. onerous than all the others.
The episode fueled criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic after delays in expanding testing and efforts to avoid a second national lockdown in England. That lockdown was finally imposed last week, but it failed to prevent the UK from becoming the first country in Europe to surpass 50,000 deaths during the pandemic.
