the times | Saturday November 14 2020 2GM 7News
Chief of staff contenders
Lord True A former speechwriter
to John Major, Lord True was leader
of Richmond council when Boris
Johnson was Mayor of London. He
is now a minister in the Cabinet
Office and is a known Brexiteer.
David Canzini The Conservative
Party’s former head of campaigns
would be a popular choice among
Tory backbenchers. He oversaw
Boris Johnson’s leadership drive
last year.
Isaac Levido The bearded
Australian ran the Conservatives’
2019 election. He was brought into
No 10 to work on coronavirus
messaging earlier this year but left
to set up his own consultancy.
Henry Newman Special adviser to
Michael Gove and a Eurosceptic, he
opposed a no-deal Brexit and
angered the Vote Leave campaign
by encouraging Mr Gove to
challenge Mr Johnson for the Tory
leadership after the referendum.
Paul Stephenson The former
director of communications for Vote
Leave left frontline politics in 2016
to set up a consultancy called
Hanbury Partners. He is a close ally
of Dominic Cummings.
Lord Frost The former ambassador
to Denmark has had a meteoric rise
since he left the Foreign Office in- At present he combines the
roles of national security adviser
and chief Brexit negotiator.
Lord Feldman Another choice that
would go down well with Tory MPs.
It is thought, however, that Lord
Feldman of Elstree does not
want the full-time position, even
though he was apparently asked by
Mr Johnson.
Cleo Watson Another figure
closely associated with Mr
Cummings. There has been some
speculation about her future in
No 10 in recent days.
Sajid Javid The former chancellor,
below, is being tipped for a return to
the heart of government. It would
be unconventional for a sitting MP
to combine parliamentary duties
with the role of chief of staff.
Nikki da Costa The director of
legislative affairs at No 10 is an
expert in Commons
procedures and may well be
the sort of appointment that
could tie Mr Johnson closer
to his parliamentary party.
Sajid Javid could return to the cabinet
early next year as Boris Johnson
prepares for a reshuffle as part of a reset
of his government.
The former chancellor has remained
on good terms with Mr Johnson despite
leaving the government in protest after
being told that he would have to sack
his special adviser.
He is also good friends with Carrie
Symonds, the prime minister’s fiancée,
who is an increasingly influential figure
in No 10. One cabinet minister said that
the departure of Dominic Cummings
removed the “block” on Mr Javid’s
return.
There were suggestions last night
that Mr Javid could move to Downing
Street as Mr Johnson’s chief of staff,
although sources close to the former
chancellor played down the suggestion.
“Sajid thinks getting an experienced
chief of staff is a good idea, but it’s
not a role he has ever been offered or
considered himself,” a source said.
While other former cabinet minis-
ters, such as Jeremy Hunt, have been
critics of the government during the
pandemic, Mr Javid has stayed on side.
Having also served as home secre-
tary under Theresa May, he is said to
want one of the great offices of state,
with the Foreign Office viewed as a
potential option. Under one scenario
Dominic Raab, the incumbent, could
combine the role of first secretary of
state with Michael Gove’s job as
minister for the Cabinet Office. Mr
Gove would then move to the role of
education secretary or health secretary.
There have been suggestions that
Matt Hancock, the health secretary,
could be at risk. However, others have
pointed out that No 10 is just as com-
plicit in the government’s failings over
coronavirus as the Department of
Health.
Gavin Williamson, the education
secretary, could be moved sideways.
One source suggested that he could be
moved into a less “front-of-house” role
if there is a reshuffle, perhaps as leader
of the Commons.
The timing of the reshuffle is still to
be decided. There have been sugges-
tions that it could be held in January or
after the local elections in May.
Downing Street has insisted that the
prime minister will not back down on
his Brexit red lines, in response to
senior EU figures suggesting that
the departure of Mr Cummings
heralded a U-turn.
Senior Brussels figures believe
that the Downing Street infighting
is a sign that Mr Johnson is ready to
make concessions.
Lord Frost, the chief
Brexit negotiator, is
understood to have
raised concerns with
Mr Johnson in a call
on Wednesday
about whether the
UK was about to
“capitulate” on
Brexit and the
Internal Market
Bill after the
resignation of Lee
Cain, the director
of communica-
tions. Mr Johnson
made clear that itwas not. Because
Mr Cummings was
the mastermind of
the Vote Leave
campaign, some
in the EU think
that with him
out of the way it
could be easier
to get an agree-
ment on its
terms. The
prime minis-
ter’s spokesman
dismissed the
suggestion.How did he do?
Dominic Cummings was
never shy in his
analyses of the
problems facing Britain
and the failures of
governments to tackle
them (Oliver Wright
writes). But how did he
do in the 18 months he
had to put his ideas in
reality?Brexit
It is undeniable that Mr
Cummings achieved his
primary objective,
which was to “deliver”
the Brexit for which he
had led the campaign
during the referendum.
Against what seemed
like impossible odds, it
was his strategy that
got a deal with the
European Union over
the line, forced an
election to break
political stasis and
handed Mr Johnson a
large majority. He
ensured that the prime
minister stuck to his
pledge of a much looser
relationship with the EU
than envisaged by
Theresa May.Remaking the
Conservative party
Despite working for a
Tory prime minister, Mr
Cummings never hid his
contempt for Mr
Johnson’s party. And in
his short time at his side
he recalibrated policies
to win an election in a
way that seemed
unimaginable to most.
Holding up the Tories’
blue wall with policies
for former Labour
working-class voters in
the north and Midlands
will remain a critical and
demanding priority for
Mr Johnson and will be
a lasting legacy of Mr
Cummings.Reforming Whitehall
Mr Cummings promised
a revolution in the civil
service, bringing in
“misfits and weirdos”.
But despite setting up a
grandiose “command
centre” in the Cabinet
Office very little of
substance actually
changed in Whitehall
and his vision for a
slimmed down digital-first civil service will
end with his departure.Space and technology
One of Mr Cummings’s
pet projects was to set
up a UK equivalent of
the American Defence
Advanced Research
Projects Agency. The
idea was to back
cutting-edge innovation.
He secured £
million from the
Treasury to launch it but
without him, and with
post-Covid spending
constraints, the idea
may be quietly dropped.Culture wars
Mr Cummings was
instrumental in the
government’s attacks
on the BBC with plans
to cut its size and
influence, potentially
scrapping the licence
fee altogether. This
agenda, despite support
among some Tories, is
likely to be downgraded
as the new Downing
Street adopts a more
consensual approach to
its critics.gover n i ng
former head of communications,
followed him into Downing Street.
What worked on the hustings hasn’t
worked in Whitehall. The team hadn’t
the bandwidth to provide a chief of
staff after the election. This left a gap,
and a power struggle this week — as a
vaccine came into view, Joe Biden won
America’s presidential election and the
prime minister turned to the future.
Furthermore, Mr Cummings,
although right wing, isn’t a Tory —
that’s to say, a believer in the wisdom
of institutions. Mr Johnson seems to
have tired of Vote Leave’s enthusiasm
for permanent revolution. His
sidelining of it leaves questions:
ultimately not so much about its
replacement as about him. What does
the prime minister really want? Is it to
continue Vote Leave’s populist march
into the Midlands and north? Or to
be gentler, more female and greener,
which suggests returning to the
Tories’ southern comfort zone, and
trying for a new start in Scotland?
To relaunch after less than a year in
government would imply that Mr
Johnson can’t settle on a strategic
course. That would be bleak news for
a country about to add post-Brexit
restructuring to the challenge of
Covid-19.
Paul Goodman is the editor of
Conservative HomeNews
‘squatters’ in Downing Street
Path cleared for Javid
to return in reshuffle
Steven Swinford, Bruno WaterfieldHOLLIE ADAMS/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IAMGES; JONATHAN BRADY/PA