By Tony O’Riley-
Dominic Cummings has sensationally attacked the integrity of UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, questioning his “competence and integrity”.
The former top adviser launched his scathing attack in retaliation to claims he was responsible for leaking text messages sent between Mr Johnson and businessman Sir James Dyson.
Denying the claims, he set out to harm the prime minister’s reputation, accusing Mr Johnson of once having a “possibly illegal” plan for donors to pay for renovations of the Downing Street flat.
No 10 responded by saying that ministers had always obeyed codes of conduct and electoral law.
Mr Cummings was forced out of his Downing Street role at the end of last year, following an internal power struggle.
Cummings and his ally Lee Cain , were both blamed by MPs for a macho culture and a series of communications crises . They were pushed out in November 2020, to the delight of other special advisers of Downing Street.
One source said the prime minister told Cummings to go following accusations he had briefed against Johnson. Special advisers were said to be delighted by his departure.
The prime minister was immediately urged to appoint an MP as his permanent chief of staff to help heal deep divisions with backbenchers amid warnings that his parliamentary party risked becoming ungovernable.
He adds: “I am happy to meet with the cabinet secretary and for him to search my phone for Dyson messages.”
Mr Cummings continues that he is “happy for No 10 to publish every email I received and sent July 2019-November 2020”.
He also calls for an “urgent parliamentary inquiry into the government’s conduct over the Covid crisis”, adding that he thinks Mr Johnson has fallen “far below” the standards of “competence” the “country deserves”.
Mr Cummings promises to answer questions about “any” issues when he appears before a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s pandemic response on 26 May.
Secret Payment By Donors
In his blog, Mr Cummings also claimed the prime minister once planned to have donors “secretly pay” for renovation of his official Downing street flat.
Like several of his recent predecessors, the PM is living in the flat above No 11 Downing Street, which is larger than the one above No 10.
He adds that Mr Johnson “stopped speaking to me about the matter in 2020”, as he told him the renovation plans were “unethical, foolish, possibly illegal and almost certainly broke the rules on proper disclosure of political donations if conducted in the way he intended”.
Mr Cummings says he would be “happy to tell the cabinet secretary or Electoral Commission” what he knew about the matter but that his knowledge is “limited”.
Downing Street’s official position on the matter was that: “At all times, the government and ministers have acted in accordance with the appropriate codes of conduct and electoral law.
“Cabinet Office officials have been engaged and informed throughout and official advice has been followed. “All reportable donations are transparently declared and published – either by the Electoral Commission or the House of Commons registrar, in line with the requirements set out in electoral law. “Gifts and benefits received in a ministerial capacity are, and will continue to be, declared in transparency returns.”
Earlier on Friday, the government said that “costs of wider refurbishment in this year have been met by the Prime Minister personally.”
Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said the issue needed “investigating in full”.
Denying being the source of a leak last year ahead of the second Covid lockdown in November, Mr Cummings says an inquiry at the time found that neither he nor the then-Downing Street director of communications, Lee Cain, had been responsible.
He added that the events around that inquiry “contributed to [his] decision to stick to [his] plan to leave No 10 by 18 December”, which he says were “communicated to the prime minister in July”.
In his blog, Mr Cummings also claimed Mr Johnson had considered stopping the inquiry.
He wrote that he recalled a meeting between Mr Johnson and the cabinet secretary at the time, after an inquiry had been launched, at which the cabinet secretary allegedly said “all the evidence definitely leads to Henry Newman and others in that office”.
At the time, Mr Newman was a special adviser at the Cabinet Office. He took up a role in Downing Street earlier this year.
Mr Cummings claims that, in a conversation he had with the PM afterwards, Boris Johnson said: “If Newman is confirmed as the leaker then I will have to fire him, and this will cause me very serious problems with Carrie [Symonds – the PM’s fiancee] as they’re best friends… [pause] perhaps we could get the cabinet secretary to stop the leak inquiry?”
In response to Mr Cummings’ claims, a Downing Street statement said: “The prime minister has never interfered in a government leak inquiry.”
A senior government official said: “The allegations against Henry Newman are entirely false. He wouldn’t be working in Downing Street if he was suspected of leaking information.”
Earlier, Downing Street declined to comment on “speculation” that Mr Cummings – who quit his government job last November after a row over his role as the PM’s chief adviser – had leaked the texts.
Mr Johnson today said during a visit to Derbyshire, that anyone who thought there was something “dodgy or rum” in his dealings with Sir James Dyson was “out of their mind”.
The grudge between Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson cannot get any more intense, and many Mps will be very angry with the former adviser.