Dominic Cummings plotted to oust Boris Johnson days after 2019 election
Dominic Cummings has today revealed he was plotting to oust Boris Johnson from Downing Street just days after his landslide 2019 General Election victory.
Johnson’s former chief aide made the explosive revelation in an upcoming BBC 2 interview tonight, after months of attacks on the Prime Minister.
Cummings said the influence of Johnson’s wife, then fiancee, spurred him and other allies to consider ousting the Prime Minister.
He said “before even mid-January [2020] we were having meetings in Number 10 saying it’s clear that Carrie [Johnson] wants rid of all of us…At that point we were already saying by the summer either we’ll all have gone from here or we’ll be in the process of trying to get rid of him and get someone else in as Prime Minister”.
“He doesn’t have a plan, he doesn’t know how to be Prime Minister and we only got him in there because we had to solve a certain problem not because he was the right person to be running the country,” he said.
Cummings said Carrie Johnson tried to use her influence to appoint “complete clowns to certain key jobs” in government – a claim denied by Downing Street.
Cummings has engaged in a concerted campaign to attack Johnson and other members of government over the past few months, which included an epic seven-hour committee meeting and a number of blog posts.
He has claimed that Johnson and ex-health secretary Matt Hancock caused tens of thousands of deaths needlessly during Covid needlessly and that the Prime Minister is not fit for the job.
The Vote Leave mastermind has said that he helped get Johnson into Number 10 to avoid a second Brexit referendum and a potential Jeremy Corbyn government.
Cummings told the BBC that “anyone who says they’re sure about questions like that [Brexit] has got a screw loose, whether you’re on the remain side or our side”, but that “I think that obviously I think Brexit was a good thing”.
“I think one of the reasons why we won is precisely, in Vote Leave we didn’t think that we’re definitely right and Remainers are all idiots or traitors or anything else… we never thought like that in, then and still don’t and I don’t know,” he said.
He added: “I think that the way in which the world has worked out since 2016 vindicates the arguments that Vote Leave made in all sorts of ways. I think it’s good that, that Brexit happened.”
A Number 10 spokesperson said: “Since the start of the pandemic, the Prime Minister has taken the necessary action to protect lives and livelihoods, guided by the best scientific advice.
“The government he leads has delivered the fastest vaccination rollout in Europe, saved millions of jobs through the furlough scheme and prevented the NHS from being overwhelmed through three national lockdowns.”