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Dominic Cummings left Downing Street tonight for good, a government source told Sky News.
They said prime minister Boris johnson He asked his senior adviser to step down today with immediate effect, along with broadcast chief Lee Cain.
Both were expected to quit their jobs, but not until the end of the year.
Attendee number 10 came out with a storage box.
A Downing Street statement later said the couple will be employed until mid-December, but Sky News’s Beth Rigby said a source told her they are not expected to return to the office again because Johnson wants to “clear the air and move forward. things. “.
Cummings left number 10 on Friday with a storage box and was then seen back home a few hours later, receiving a package.
Cummings was last seen waiting for a vehicle in Whitehall
Sir Edward Lister, Johnson’s top strategic adviser, has been promoted to acting chief of staff.
According to The Daily Telegraph, former Chancellor Sajid Javid he is the frontrunner to become the permanent incumbent of that position, signaling a major shakeup in Downing Street operations.
An ally of his told Sky News that Mr. Javid thought that getting someone with experience was a “good idea”, although “it is not a role that he has been offered or considered for himself.”
Javid is reportedly the favorite to become chief of staff
Mr javid quit smoking in extraordinary circumstances during the cabinet shakeup in February, reportedly when Mr. Cummings He said he should only stay at No. 11 if he gave up his choice of special advisers.
That, and the police find it may have committed a “minor infraction” of the rules during the first national lockdown, he scored the Cummings card among some Conservative MPs.
MP Sir Roger Gale told Sky News on Friday that the former head of Vote Leave had “become a distraction” and an “evil influence in downtown Downing Street for too long.”
“It’s okay for him to go,” he said, adding, “The sooner he leaves, the better.”
While Theresa Villiers, a former cabinet minister, welcomed the “good opportunity for a new beginning.”
“There are clearly concerns about the dismissive attitude Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings sometimes show towards people in government and MPs in the back pews,” he said.
Another Conservative MP, Tobias Ellwood, told Sky News: “We are going to move away from EastEnders a little and further to the West Wing.”
Communications chief at No10 Lee Cain also resigns
Guto Harri, a former Johnson aide, also said it was “goodbye and goodbye” from Cummings, who, according to him, had done “enormous damage.”
“He was a player on the field who didn’t score any goals but didn’t pass the ball to anyone else,” he said. “These guys light the fuse and leave the scene before the bomb goes off.”
In a blog post in January, Cummings revealed that he planned to step down by the end of the year, saying he expected to become “largely redundant” by then.
But news of his long-awaited departure comes after a bitter backstage power struggle in Downing Street that ended with Cain’s resignation, something that likely hastened his decision.
The news was described as a “great moment” by Theresa May’s former chief of staff, Lord Gavin Barwell.
He tweeted: “Boris now has the opportunity to achieve a more harmonious and effective Downing Street operation (as he did at City Hall); improve relations with the parliamentary party; and lead a less confrontational and more unifying government that better reflects his own character.. “
A colleague said Boris Johnson could oversee a ‘more unifying government’
Cummings, who as a special adviser would normally be an unknown figure to most, was brought into the limelight in May after he was revealed. defied the “stay home” order during the first confinement to take his wife and son to his family’s farm in Durham.
He said it was so their relatives could take care of them in case he and his wife were incapacitated from having coronavirus after showing symptoms.
Cummings was also investigated by police for claiming that he then drove to Barnard Castle, a beautiful place 30 minutes away, to test his eyesight and make sure he was well enough to return to London.
At a Downing Street press conference, he said “I don’t regret what I did” – although dozens of Conservative MPs continued to call for his dismissal.
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When news broke of his departure from government, Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps praised him, telling Sky News: “We will miss him … but advisers come and go.
“In any government, you need people to change things and come up with ideas, and he really has been that person.”
Cummings, once described by former Prime Minister David Cameron as a “career psychopath,” is a former Conservative Party strategy director and former aide to Cabinet Minister Michael Gove.
Analysis: Why did Cummings and Cain leave so suddenly?
By Kate McCann, Political Correspondent
Mr. Cummings and Mr. Cain are former colleagues in the Vote Leave campaign
Dominic Cummings has left Downing Street tonight for the last time, having resigned following the departure of his ally and fellow adviser Lee Cain.
Boris Johnson’s most senior aide was expected to serve through the new year, but he left tonight with a large box of his belongings.
A furious dispute had erupted after the prime minister appointed Allegra Stratton, a former journalist and more recently an adviser to Rishi Sunak, to lead the on-camera briefings for him.
This raised concerns among some members of Johnson’s senior team that they were being replaced and led to Cain’s resignation Thursday.
Cummings had previously said he would leave Downing Street in 2021 after launching a series of key reforms within the government, but the timing and public nature of his departure is said to have more to do with Cain’s decision to leave.
Mr. Cummings walked out the front door of Downing Street tonight with his belongings in a packing box.
There are several alternative exits to the building that would have avoided the dazzling of the press lenses.
