Ministers ‘tell Boris Johnson he must “rein in” top aide Dominic Cummings’

Ministers have warned Boris Johnson he must ‘rein in’ top aide Dominic Cummings because ‘half the Cabinet’ feel unable to work with him.

Government figures reportedly believe the current way in which Number 10 is operating is ‘unsustainable’ and ‘untenable’ with Mr Cummings’ role a key concern. 

Meanwhile, some special advisers have apparently sought counselling because of work-related stress while others unhappy with the current set up are planning to leave the government.

The claims come after Mr Cummings was involved in a series of high profile rows in recent weeks. 

Boris Johnson is now under pressure from ministers to ‘rein in’ his top aide. The PM is pictured in Downing Street on February 12

He is facing mounting pressure over the hiring of controversial ex-adviser Andrew Sabisky who is believed to have been brought into Number 10 as part of Mr Cummings’ call for ‘misfits and weirdos’ to join the government. 

Mr Sabisky resigned on Monday amid a furious backlash over previous comments he made about race, women and benefits. 

Mr Cummings hit the headlines last week following Mr Johnson’s Cabinet reshuffle as Sajid Javid resigned as chancellor after refusing to bow to the aide’s demands for him to sack all of his advisers. 

He also sparked controversy after he reportedly told a meeting of special advisers ahead of the reshuffle he would ‘see half of you next week’. 

A senior minister told Buzzfeed that Mr Johnson needed to ‘rein in’ Mr Cummings. 

The minister said ‘half the cabinet’ feel they cannot work with the adviser and some are openly speculating about when he could quit Number 10. 

Buzzfeed also reported that some special advisers who are afraid of losing their jobs have been emailing Number 10 to report any perceived disloyalty from colleagues or ministers.

The claims came after former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke predicted Mr Cummings will not last long as the PM’s top adviser unless he ‘vanishes’ and returns to being a ‘back room’ operator. 

The veteran former Cabinet minister said it was always an ‘absolute disaster if the chief adviser became the story in the newspapers’.  

Mr Clarke suggested the ‘exotic aide’ will only survive in the job if his ‘personal appearances stop’. 

Mr Clarke told ITV’s Acting PM podcast: ‘Boris may not be interested in the detail of policy but he’s not an idiot he’s a very bright man and the Cummings thing can only last if Mr Cummings’ personal appearances stop and he vanishes and he goes back to being the back room apparatchik which he, of course, you need and what he’s supposed to be doing.’ 

He added: ‘It’s always been regarded as an absolute disaster if the chief adviser became the story in the newspapers.’ 

Mr Clarke also said that he believed the current Number 10 operation will implode unless it changes tack.  

He said: ‘Oh you can’t go on like this, you can’t govern a country and explain what you’re doing for the public by the medium of leaks from an exotic aide in No10.’ 

Mr Clarke was stripped of the Tory whip last year after rebelling against the government over Brexit. He stepped down as an MP at the general election.   

Dominic Cummings: The acerbic Brexit mastermind not afraid to speak his mind

Dominic Cummings was the quiet yet acerbic power behind the Vote Leave campaign that propelled Britain towards backing Brexit in 2016.

While Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were in the limelight the 47-year-old remained in the shadows pulling the strings.

Born in Durham and educated at Oxford University, he over saw a campaign that totally outflanked Remain and which is widely credited with leading to the 52-48 result in favour of quitting. 

Such was his central role he was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in Channel 4’s Brexit: The Uncivil War last year (below). 

He was the man behind the infamous ‘£350million-a-week for the NHS’ claim on red buses, and the ‘take back control’ catchphrase. However, a year after the referendum, Mr Cummings said it was a ‘dumb idea’.

But his success in the strategic role of the campaign saw his drawn blinking into the daylight.

A former special adviser at the Department for Education during Mr Gove’s controversial reforming tenure, he was later found in contempt of Parliament for refusing to answer MPs questions about the Brexit campaign. 

He declined to assist the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s investigation into claims made by Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie that the Facebook data of millions of users was illegally harvested and used to sway the Brexit vote.

He was once labelled a ‘career psychopath’ by former prime minister David Cameron, according to widely-reported remarks.

But Mr Cummings is no stranger to an insult either.

He described David Davis, then the Brexit secretary, as ‘thick as mince, lazy as a toad and vain as Narcissus’ in July 2017.

He has also previously turned his fire on hardline Brexiteers in the Tory European Research Group in one of his trademark lengthy blogposts. 

In March last year he likened some members of the group to a ‘metastasising tumour’ accusing them of ‘scrambling’ for top radio spots while ‘spouting gibberish’ since 2016.

He also attacked them for their help – or lack of it – during the referendum campaign, saying ‘so many of you guys were too busy shooting or skiing or chasing girls to do any actual work’. 

The mastermind criticised a ‘narcissist-delusional subset’ of the ERG that he said needed to be ‘excised’.

Some had actually been ‘useful idiots for Remain during the campaign’ and continued to play this role, he claimed.