Sajid Javid makes dig at Dominic Cummings during PMQs speech

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Sajid Javid left his position as Chancellor last February, and made a subtle reference to his long-standing feud with the Prime Minister’s top aide when explaining why he had resigned. Dominic Cummings was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man until he was forced out of his role late last year, following an internal power struggle behind closed doors. But the divisive former advisor returned to the public sphere last week, after allegations that he was the source behind several significant leaks from No.10.

The Prime Minister has just been accused of saying he would prefer “bodies [to] pile high in their thousands” rather than impose another national lockdown last November — a claim which has been robustly denied by No.10 and Mr Johnson.

However, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case believes Mr Cummings is the “Chatty Rat” who leaked these details.

Mr Cummings did publish his first blog post since leaving the Prime Minister’s side recently, and made a series of explosive claims against Mr Johnson which called his “competence and integrity” into question.

Before this explosive row, Mr Cummings’ most famous fallout was with the former Chancellor, as they battled for the Prime Minister’s ear before Mr Javid stepped down from his post.

Mr Javid had become increasingly agitated by the nickname ‘CHINO’, which stood for ‘Chancellor in name only’, said to have originated within Downing Street.

Mr Cummings is also believed to have been Mr Javid’s main opponent in Downing Street, dating back to summer 2019.

Even when Mr Johnson backed up his Chancellor, the Daily Mail’s political editor Jason Groves claimed, “Mr Cummings continued to chip away and argued that Mr Javid, his aides and their attachment to Treasury orthodoxy meant the Government would struggle to fulfil its promises to balance the economy”.

One Tory official criticised Mr Javid for “always saying no”, while his deputy — the current Chancellor — was known for being far more lenient.

As commentator Katy Balls explained: “No.10 staff made little secret of the fact they found his deputy, Rishi Sunak easier to deal with when it came to departmental spending and realising the Government’s plans.”

Additionally, Mr Cummings was said to back Mr Sunak and wanted to install him in Mr Javid’s place for a long time.

Speaking to the Financial Times after Mr Javid left office, a Whitehall official explained the long-running rift between Mr Cummings and the former Chancellor.

They said: “It’s become like the Israel-Palestine crisis: no one can pin down exactly when it started but it’s descended into retaliation after retaliation.”

One insider even said Mr Javid was “more popular with the residents in the No.10 apartment than the No.10 office”.

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Mr Javid had been invited to Carrie Symonds’ 30th birthday party after all, back in 2018.

Senior fellow at the Institute for Government, Jill Rutter, told The Financial Times that Mr Javid was not in a strong enough position within Downing Street to ask for Mr Cummings to be sacked.

Instead, she speculated: “He might think that Cummings could explode, so he could just sit it out.”

Mr Cummings has indeed lifted the lid on his experience of Downing Street through his blog post which he published last week, which has been dubbed a “nuclear dom” in Westminster.

Dominic Cummings has ‘ammunition at disposal’ says insider

As the BBC’s Jonathan Blake commented: “The level of detail shows that Mr Cummings is willing to expose others while defending himself and lay bare the inner workings of No.10.”

On Friday, No.10 sources claimed the Prime Minister thinks Mr Cummings has been “engaged in systematic leaking” around the lockdowns — Downing Street did not deny these reports.

An investigation into the source of the leaks is still ongoing, according to Cabinet Minister Lizz Truss.

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