Boris Johnson has branded his former chief of staff Dominic Cummings as “weird” and compared him to a “homicidal robot” as he blamed him for his downfall as prime minister.
In his new autobiography Unleashed, Mr Johnson charted the collapse of his relationship with Mr Cummings from the high point of them working to win the EU referendum in 2016. But the ex-prime minister has alleged that the aftermath of Mr Cummings’s lockdown-breaking trip to Barnard Castle in 2020 led to the former chief of staff using Partygate as a form of revenge.
In his new book, Mr Johnson recounts hearing Mr Cummings in an interview for the BBC admitting that he had been conspiring to bring him down as prime minister from early January 2020, just weeks after the massive election victory. Mr Johnson noted: “I mean WTF?”
“You might have thought that the honourable thing to do would have been to resign, if that was how he really felt,” he added.
He suggested that Mr Cummings may have been like the Shakespearean character Iago, pursuing “the motive-hunting of the motiveless malignant”. Mr Johnson also targeted his former director of communications Lee Cain.
This story is from the October 04, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 04, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Why fans will shrug at loss of Man Utd's brightest star
A couple of years ago, if the news had broken that Marcus Rashford wished to leave Manchester United and seek his future elsewhere, the effect on the club's fans would have been dramatic.
Will Usyk or Fury 'get old overnight' in their rematch?
In boxing we have an expression we use during a fight, if one of the boxers looks bad: \"He got old overnight.\"
O'Shea is loving the battles at the Republic of Ipswich
As a player who was clocked as the fourth fastest in the Premier League last season, Dara O'Shea relishes it \"when I'm up against a striker and it's me and him\".
Sliding doors moment that saw Spurs embrace chaos
Tottenham fans will wonder what could have been tomorrow as Arne Slot brings league leaders Liverpool to north London
HS2 doesn't need a 'reset'...this line never made sense
Nobody knows how much it will cost or when it will be done. With our creaking transport system, the mounting billions would be better spent elsewhere, says Chris Blackhurst
Hope for economic growth dampened by uncertainty
Fun fact: the OECD still predicts that Britain's economy will be one of the stars of the G7 during 2025 with growth of 1.7 per cent, lagging only behind the US at 2.4 per cent.
Trump's war on the press is straight from Putin playbook
The pen may not be mightier than the sword, but it still has the power to wound. How else to explain the extraordinary remarks of the former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, this week in which he revealed how stung he'd been by an editorial in The Times?
Musk calls far-right AfD party saviours of Germany
Elon Musk has described the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as the country's saviour, sparking calls from Berlin for the US billionaire to \"stay out\" of their politics.
Macron swears in heated exchanges with crowds in cyclone-battered Mayotte
French president Emmanuel Macron swore during an exchange as he was heckled by angry residents of a Mayotte neighbourhood ravaged by cyclone Chido, telling them: “If it wasn’t for France, you’d be 10,000 times deeper in shit.”
Store guard helped uncover abuse of Pelicot by husband
When Gisèle Pelicot was called to talk to police in November 2020, she believed it was to discuss upskirting allegations made against her husband of 50 years.