It’s not only Cummings whose fate is at stake

When the cabinet met by conference call on Monday, three ministers spoke in support of Dominic Cummings: Jacob Rees-Mogg, Suella Braverman and Priti Patel. Their sentiments were not universally shared. ‘Several of us started feeling ill when Jacob opened his mouth,’ says one attendee. ‘Silence from the parliamentary party is damning.’

But many critics of Cummings now think that, having dug in so deeply, the Prime Minster has to keep his man. To need to fight this much for an aide is bad enough. But to fight and lose would be devastating.

This explains the energy behind the pursuit of Cummings in the past few days. The disclosure that Boris Johnson’s senior aide travelled 260 miles from London during lockdown isn’t just an easy issue on which to criticise the government — it’s also provided the Prime Minister’s critics with their biggest chance yet at destabilising Johnson’s operation. It became clear pretty quickly that this was not about the fate of one adviser, but about the authority of the PM and the viability of his government.