London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Aug 30, 2025

Dominic Cummings launches attack on Boris Johnson's integrity

Dominic Cummings launches attack on Boris Johnson's integrity

Dominic Cummings has launched a blistering attack on his old boss Boris Johnson, questioning his "competence and integrity".

The former top adviser denied leaking text messages sent between Mr Johnson and businessman Sir James Dyson.

And he claimed Mr Johnson once had a "possibly illegal" plan for donors to pay for renovations of the Downing Street flat.

No 10 said ministers had always obeyed codes of conduct and electoral law.

Mr Cummings was forced out of his Downing Street role at the end of last year, following an internal power struggle.

On Friday, in his first blog post since leaving that role, he also denied leaking details of the second Covid lockdown in England.


This is an explosive intervention from a man Boris Johnson used to count on as one of his closest allies.

And if you're tempted to roll your eyes and think it's just sour grapes from a jilted advisor, think again.

Dominic Cummings' blog is proof that he is willing to lift the lid on his time at the heart of Downing Street, regardless of how it reflects on the prime minister.

Beyond his denial of leaking text messages, he has also given his version of events relating to two potential political weak spots for Boris Johnson.

They are the questions over the financing of the renovation of the Downing Street flat and the leaking of a plan to impose a lockdown.

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.

Several newspapers ran front page stories suggesting Mr Cummings was the source of leaked messages between Mr Johnson and Sir James Dyson, first reported this week by the BBC.

The BBC - whose political editor Laura Kuenssberg first reported on the text messages on Tuesday - said it did not discuss the sources of stories.

Asked whether he had blamed his former adviser for it, Mr Johnson said: "I don't think people give a monkey's, to be frank, about who is briefing what to who."

No 10 has launched an inquiry into who leaked the text messages.

The text exchange between Mr Johnson and Sir James happened in March last year, after the government asked companies to help build thousands of ventilators needed to deal with very ill patients.

Boris Johnson brought Dominic Cummings into Downing Street in July 2019

In it, the prime minister agreed to "fix" concerns the businessman had about tax bills for his Singapore-based staff if they moved to the UK to do this.

Writing on his blog, Mr Cummings said: "I was not directly or indirectly a/the source for the BBC/Kuenssberg story on the PM/Dyson texts."

He adds: "I am happy to meet with the cabinet secretary and for him to search my phone for Dyson messages."

Mr Cummings continues that he is "happy for No 10 to publish every email I received and sent July 2019-November 2020".

He also calls for an "urgent parliamentary inquiry into the government's conduct over the Covid crisis", adding that he thinks Mr Johnson has fallen "far below" the standards of "competence" the "country deserves".

Mr Cummings promises to answer questions about "any" issues when he appears before a parliamentary inquiry into the government's pandemic response on 26 May.

Flat row


In his blog, Mr Cummings also claimed the prime minister once planned to have donors "secretly pay" for renovation of his official Downing street flat.

Like several of his recent predecessors, the PM is living in the flat above No 11 Downing Street, which is larger than the one above No 10.

He adds that Mr Johnson "stopped speaking to me about the matter in 2020", as he told him the renovation plans were "unethical, foolish, possibly illegal and almost certainly broke the rules on proper disclosure of political donations if conducted in the way he intended".

Mr Cummings says he would be "happy to tell the cabinet secretary or Electoral Commission" what he knew about the matter but that his knowledge is "limited".

In response to Mr Cummings's claims, a No 10 spokesperson said: "At all times, the government and ministers have acted in accordance with the appropriate codes of conduct and electoral law.

"Cabinet Office officials have been engaged and informed throughout and official advice has been followed. "All reportable donations are transparently declared and published - either by the Electoral Commission or the House of Commons registrar, in line with the requirements set out in electoral law. "Gifts and benefits received in a ministerial capacity are, and will continue to be, declared in transparency returns."

Earlier on Friday, the government said that "costs of wider refurbishment in this year have been met by the Prime Minister personally."

Labour's shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said the issue needed "investigating in full".

Lockdown leak


Denying being the source of a leak last year ahead of the second Covid lockdown in November, Mr Cummings says an inquiry at the time found that neither he nor the then-Downing Street director of communications, Lee Cain, had been responsible.

He adds that the events around that inquiry "contributed to [his] decision to stick to [his] plan to leave No 10 by 18 December", which he says were "communicated to the prime minister in July".

In his blog, Mr Cummings also claimed Mr Johnson had considered stopping the inquiry.

He wrote that he recalled a meeting between Mr Johnson and the cabinet secretary at the time, after an inquiry had been launched, at which the cabinet secretary allegedly said "all the evidence definitely leads to Henry Newman and others in that office".

At the time, Mr Newman was a special adviser at the Cabinet Office. He took up a role in Downing Street earlier this year.

Mr Cummings claims that, in a conversation he had with the PM afterwards, Boris Johnson said: "If Newman is confirmed as the leaker then I will have to fire him, and this will cause me very serious problems with Carrie [Symonds - the PM's fiancee] as they're best friends… [pause] perhaps we could get the cabinet secretary to stop the leak inquiry?"

In response to Mr Cummings' claims, a Downing Street statement said: "The prime minister has never interfered in a government leak inquiry."

And a senior government official said: "The allegations against Henry Newman are entirely false. He wouldn't be working in Downing Street if he was suspected of leaking information."

Earlier, Downing Street declined to comment on "speculation" that Mr Cummings - who quit his government job last November after a row over his role as the PM's chief adviser - had leaked the texts.

On a visit to Derbyshire, Mr Johnson said anyone who thought there was something "dodgy or rum" in his dealings with Sir James Dyson was "out of their mind".

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
A new faith called Robotheism claims artificial intelligence isn’t just smart but actually God itself
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Purchases Third Property Amid Housing Tax Reforms Debate
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Italian Facebook Group Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent Shut Down Amid Police Investigation
Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Deadlock Over Israel Sanctions
Trump and Allies Send Messages of Support to Ukraine on Independence Day Amid Ongoing Conflict
China Reels as Telegram Chat Group Shares Hidden-Camera Footage of Women and Children
Sam Nicoresti becomes first transgender comedian to win Edinburgh Comedy Award
Builders uncover historic human remains in Lancashire house renovation
Australia Wants to Tax Your Empty Bedrooms
MotoGP Cameraman Narrowly Avoids Pedro Acosta Crash at Hungarian Grand Prix
FBI Investigates John Bolton Over Classified Documents in High-Profile Raids
Report reveals OpenAI pitched national ChatGPT Plus subscription to UK ministers
×