Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings once pinned a political rival to a wall and threatened them, a new documentary claims.
The BBC programme is the first in-depth look at the controversial former director of the Vote Leave campaign and pulls together interviews from more than 20 Cummings’s supporters and critics.
Taking Control: The Dominic Cummings Story examines the man at the heart of Boris Johnson’s Conservative government at a time when it is under immense scrutiny over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Colin Perry, formerly of the Confederation of British Industry, claims that Cummings pushed him against a wall and raised his fist to him after the pair engaged in a fiery radio interview in 1999.
Taking Control: The Dominic Cummings Story airs tonight on BBC Two. It will feature thoughts from more than 20 supporters and critics of the PM’s chief adviser, including former cabinet members and colleagues from the Brexit campaign
Dominic Cummings pictured in July 2016 with Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. Mr Cummings was chief of Vote Leave and together with Mr Johnson and Mr Gove, orchestrated Britain’s decision to leave the European Union
He told presenter Emily Maitlis in the programme: ‘We had to come down a rather narrow flight of steps from the studio.
‘Suddenly I felt he’d grabbed my shoulders from behind and was trying to push me down the steps. I managed to keep my footing and make my way to the bottom.
‘I turned around to confront him and he seized me by the tie, pushed me against the wall and raised his fist.
‘My main feeling was one of self-preservation, to get out of his clutches.’
‘If somebody in my business had assaulted somebody from a rival organisation, you’d have been summarily dismissed.’
A formal complaint was made against him following the incident, but Cummings kept his job at the anti-Euro campaign.
Cummings hasn’t responded to the BBC’s request for comment but claimed at the time that the two men had simply ‘stumbled into each other’.
As well as gaining plaudits for swinging the 2016 EU Referendum, Mr Cummings is also credited as helping to deliver the Conservative Party’s largest majority since 1987 last December.
Tonight’s BBC Two documentary will look at his career, from its origins as a strategist for the anti-Euro campaign in the late 1990s and how he rose to be one of the most powerful non-elected figures in today’s government.
More than 20 supporters and critics will share their thoughts on Dominic Cummings, pictured with his wife Mary Wakefield in September last year. Three months after this picture was taken Mr Cummings would be credited with helping the Conservative Party obtain its biggest majority since 1987
The claim features alongside a series of other long forgotten archive TV and radio appearances of Cummings from earlier in his career, including his first TV appearance in the late 90s and an interview on BBC Breakfast in 2003 with Bill Turnbull where he discusses calling the then Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith ‘incompetent’.
More than 20 interviewees spoke to the programme about their experiences of the man who is said to have ‘masterminded’ Brexit and now appears to be the number one person Prime Minister Boris Johnson turns to in Downing Street.
The programme includes testimonies from Cummings’ supporters and critics alike.
It speaks to a series of former Conservative MPs including Rory Stewart, David Gauke, Daniel Hannan and Dominic Grieve.
Former Justice Minister and Conservative MP David Gauke described Cummings’ approach in September 2019 when dealing with Conservative MPs threatening to block a no-deal Brexit.
Gauke said: ‘Greg Clark got a call from Dominic Cummings and was told in no uncertain terms, “you effing people need to learn that this is what we’re doing.”
Quite a few people sort of said well if that’s going to be the way you want to play it, I’m not going to be intimidated.’
Political strategist and former CEO of Vote Leave Matthew Elliott said: ‘It didn’t surprise me that Boris turned to him.
‘He can do the market research, he can do the comms like Alastair Campbell could, he can organise things based on his time at the Department for Education, so really his skill set spans all the different areas you need to run an effective machine.’
Former Conservative MEP Lord Hannan said of Cummings: ‘When it comes to understanding how the state is failing he is absolutely the best guy in the business.’
Former Labour MP Lord Mandelson said: ‘Dominic Cummings has a one hundred percent clear objective. No half measures, no going so far and then stopping, it’s all the way. That is both the magic and the richness of the man as well as his horror.’
Watch Taking Control: The Dominic Cummings Story on BBC Two at 9pm tonight.