Why Dominic Cummings had to go

On 24 July last year, I wrote that the government of Boris Johnson was being taken over by Dominic Cummings and his Vote Leave team. That was not hyperbole. Since then, both the reality of Cummings and the myths about him, have defined Johnson’s first 16 months as Prime Minister.

Which is why, as one Downing Street insider put it to me, Cummings’ departure ‘feels like a fire has raged through the building.’

For all the controversy stirred up by Cummings – or perhaps because of it, to an extent – Johnson owes a substantial debt to the eccentric special adviser who organised the referendum campaign for leaving the EU.

In the spring and summer of 2019, the Tory party was in a condition of self-destructive civil war, and a negotiated deal to leave the EU seemed a remote prospect.