Tories express alarm at Dominic Cummings’s ‘secret election talks’ with Rishi Sunak

 

Tories express alarm at Dominic Cummings’s ‘secret election talks’ with Rishi Sunak

 

Some Conservatives say PM’s reported meetings with Boris Johnson’s former chief aide show lack of judgment

 

Peter Walker Deputy political editor

@peterwalker99

Sun 31 Dec 2023 17.17 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/31/dominic-cummings-held-secret-election-talks-with-rishi-sunak

 

Conservative MPs have expressed anger and alarm at the claim that Rishi Sunak offered Dominic Cummings a secret deal to help him win the election, with one saying Boris Johnson’s former chief aide should have “no place in political life”.

 

Other Tory MPs have commented in WhatsApp groups to express opposition to the idea, first revealed in the Sunday Times, with some saying it showed a lack of judgment by Sunak. Another likened it to letting “an arsonist into your home”.

 

Downing Street has not denied Sunak met Cummings twice for discussions, but rejected Cummings’s contention that this involved a job offer, saying the prime minister simply had “a broad discussion” with him.

 

Cummings, one of the architects of the successful Vote Leave campaign, was sacked by Johnson after less than a year but remains one of the most controversial figures in UK politics.

 

Part of this comes from his apparent breach of lockdown rules when he took his family from London to the north-east of England in spring 2020. He is also a notably abrasive figure, accused by others of being at the centre of a toxic, misogynistic and arrogant cabal of advisers in Johnson’s No 10.

 

According to the Sunday Times, Cummings and Sunak held talks in North Yorkshire, where the prime minister’s constituency is located, in July. Cummings had previously had a meeting in London in December 2022 with Sunak and Liam Booth-Smith, Sunak’s chief of staff, the report added.

 

Cummings told the Sunday Times Sunak had offered him a private role preparing for the next election, but that the PM would not agree to his terms.

 

Cummings said: “He wanted a secret deal in which I delivered the election and he promised to take government seriously after the election. But I’d rather the Tories lose than continue in office without prioritising what’s important and the voters.

 

“I said I was only prepared to build a political machine to smash Labour and win the election if he would commit to No 10 truly prioritising the most critical things, like the scandal of nuclear weapons infrastructure, natural and engineered pandemics, the scandal of MoD procurement, AI and other technological capabilities, and the broken core government institutions which we started fixing in 2020 but Boris [Johnson] abandoned.”

 

One former cabinet minister told the Guardian: “I’m staggered that this was even thought to be a good idea, especially when Rishi said in the past he was having nothing to do with Dominic Cummings.

 

“This is a man who is deeply toxic, whose approach to politics is sociopathic, and I’m being polite. Why on earth would you want to entertain someone like that back in the heart of politics, when they did so much harm?

 

“It shows no judgment at all. Dominic Cummings has no place in political life, in my view, and that would be the view of most people in the Conservative party, from left to right.”

 

A senior backbencher said: “Every Conservative MP should remember the thousands of emails from outraged constituents after Dom’s trip to Bernard Castle. Never let an arsonist into your home, most certainly don’t welcome them in, no matter how bad the polls. Dominic Cummings has no interest in the Conservative party.”

 

One usually supportive MP said: “Picking anybody’s brains is fair enough, even if you disagree with them. But to offer a job to someone as controversial and damaging, both to policy and to the Conservatives, is a retrograde step. All this will do is dig up a lot of memories that we in the party would rather forget.”

 

The Lib Dems called for an inquiry into whether Sunak had breached the ministerial code in failing to declare both meetings in the official register.

 

A government spokesperson said: “In full accordance with the ministerial code, meetings with private individuals to discuss political matters do not need to be declared.”

 

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, whose role is central to Labour’s election preparations, said: “Out-of-touch Rishi Sunak is asking the wrong question if he thinks the lockdown rule-breaking architect of Boris Johnson’s failed premiership is the answer.”

 

Cummings became a figure of some national ridicule during the pandemic after claiming he drove his family to the County Durham beauty spot of Barnard Castle to test his eyesight.

 

More recently, at the public inquiry into Covid, Cummings was accused of “aggressive, foul-mouthed and misogynistic” abuse after messages showed he tried to sack the senior civil servant Helen MacNamara, saying No 10 was “dodging stilettos from that cunt”.