The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings has left Downing Street carrying boxes amid reports he has quit his post earlier than expected.
The BBC reported Mr Cummings had stepped down from his role with immediate effect, rather than waiting for the end of the year.
The broadcaster said the controversial aide had spoken to the Prime Minister earlier today and it was decided it was best for him to go immediately.
The news came amid a bitter power struggle in Number 10, which saw the resignation of Mr Cummings’ fellow Vote Leave veteran Lee Cain earlier this week.
On Thursday night, Mr Cummings insisted to the BBC that “rumours of me threatening to resign are invented” after it was suggested he would exit in protest over the treatment of Mr Cain, who quit as communications chief.
But Mr Cummings said his “position hasn’t changed since my January blog” in which he said he hoped to be “largely redundant” by 2021.
Tory backbenchers urged the Prime Minister to use the exit of the aide whose mid-lockdown trip to Durham cemented his notoriety as an opportunity to restore the values of “respect, integrity and trust”.
Senior Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said it is time to restore “respect, integrity and trust”, which he said have been “lacking in recent months” between Number 10 and Tory MPs.
“It’s an opportunity to reset how the government operates and to emphasise some values about what we want to project as a Conservative Party in Government,” the chair of the Commons liaison committee told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I’m not surprised in a way that it is ending in the way it is. No prime minister can afford a single adviser to become a running story, dominating his Government’s communications and crowding out the proper messages the government wants to convey.
“Nobody is indispensable.”
