Will Boris come to regret his Treasury power grab?

Has Boris Johnson made the first major error of his premiership? Choosing his adviser over his Chancellor could be seen as a bold gamble of the sort that won him a sweeping election victory and got the UK out of the European Union. We of little faith in the commentariat have often misread this prime minister and have been left looking like chumps as a result. But where Boris has succeeded is in defying the rules of politics and the circumstances of Sajid Javid’s departure have more to do with the rules of governance. Robert Peston says: ‘The PM and [Dominic] Cummings believe the success of the government in these challenging times require Downing Street and the Treasury to act, as far as possible, as one seamless unit.’ Boris, Peston is told, ‘admires how Cameron and Osborne acted as a two-headed single political monster’.

Javid walked out of government after refusing to agree to the sacking of his special advisers and the creation of what the FT calls ‘a joint team of special advisers… to run both Number 10 and the Treasury’.