Dominic Cummings calls Carrie Johnson a ‘wrong ‘un’ and says Boris ‘will go next year’

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Dominic Cummings today called his old boss Boris Johnson a ‘complete shambles’ who will be thrown out of No 10 ‘by next year’ and also blamed his wife Carrie for his perilous position, branding her a ‘wrong ‘un’ who ‘wants to control the country via him’.

The Prime Minister’s former chief aide, who left Downing Street last December after losing a power struggle with Mrs Johnson, claimed the decision by Mr Johnson to marry his third wife was an ‘inevitable disaster’.

In a Q&A on his blog, where he urged subscribers to ‘ask me anything’, he said: ‘He’s a shambles but the shambles has been made worse by hooking up with a wrong un [Carrie Johnson] who wants to control the country via him. He got a wrong un pregnant, listened to her insane advice/screaming, and went into a flat spin’. 

The renegade former civil servant said Boris ‘hasn’t heard the last’ of the Christmas party scandal, claiming there will be pictures proving it took place, and said that he knew teenagers who would be better at the job than the Prime Minister.

His extraordinary attack on the Prime Minister’s  wife came as she remained in hospital just 24 hours after giving birth to a baby girl.    

Mr Johnson, who became a father for the seventh time yesterday, is under pressure to quit over his handling of covid, allegations of multiple illegal Christmas parties and claims he lied about the funding of the lavish Downing Street flat refurbishment including £800-plus a roll gold wallpaper. 

He claimed Mr Johnson ‘throws everybody under the bus’ to save himself but predicted Tory MPs will wield the axe in 2022, adding: ‘I know 15 year-olds who would do a better job at PM in all ways than Boris, except giving a speech – he cant actually do anything other than the words/bullsh*t side of things’. 

‘He’s done, gone by this time next year, probably summer’, he said.

Cummings was kicked out of No 10 following a confrontation with Boris Johnson and claims he briefed against his then fiancée, who his allies were alleged to have called her ‘Princess Nut Nut’. 

Tories today warned ‘patience is running out’ with Boris Johnson as his spin chief was dragged into the ‘partygate’ row, his sleaze watchdog demanded answers on the Downing Street flat refurbishment, and MPs revolt over Covid curbs.

The PM is fighting on a bewildering range of fronts, forced to deny losing confidence in Jack Doyle after claims he gave a speech and handed out prizes at a lockdown-busting and boozy festive gathering in Downing Street last year.

Mr Cummings insisted that he believed the Prime Minister knew about the Christmas party on December 18 2020, and may have even seen it unfolding if he wasn’t at Chequers.

He said: ‘He knew but I think did not attend, tho remember the geography – to get upstairs he has to walk past that area where he could see it’. 

‘Obv he was lying. There were invites sent across whitehall, it was an organised party. The trolley know this and tried to lie his way out but was f***ed by the video’ – a reference to the Allegra Stratton leak.

He added in a tweet: ‘There’s lots of pictures of the parties which will inevitably get out. And invite lists beyond No10, to other departments’. 

Mr Cummings alleged earlier this week there was a bash in No 10 on the evening of November 13 last year, hours after he was kicked out.

Today the Prime Minister apologised ‘unreservedly’ for the offence caused by the footage of his then-spokeswoman Allegra Stratton – who today resigned from the government – at a mock press conference about a party on December 18, 2020.

But he insisted that he had been repeatedly assured that ‘there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken’. Mr Johnson said he had asked Cabinet Secretary Simon Case ‘to establish all the facts and to report back as soon as possible – and it goes without saying that if those rules were broken then there will be disciplinary action for all those involved’.

Following the announcement, the PM’s former chief adviser tweeted: ‘Will the CABSEC also be asked to investigate the *flat* party on Fri 13 Nov, the other flat parties, & the flat’s ‘bubble’ policy…?’. The bubble reference is believed to be about the decision to allow Carrie Johnson’s best friend Nimco Ali at Number 10 over the festive period ‘to help support and look after’ the Johnsons’ son, Wilfred. 

Minutes later the PM was asked in the Commons about claims of a Downing St party in his flat after Mr Cummings left No 10. He replied. ‘No, but I’m sure that whatever happened the guidance was followed at all time.’ 

There are also claims that on November 27 that Mr Johnson reportedly gives a speech at a packed leaving do for a ‘senior aide’. ’40 or 50 people’ were present. The aide was named as one newspaper as Cleo Watson, Dominic Cummings’ protégé. 

Mr Cummings has been accused of misogyny towards Carrie, a former Tory party communications chief he clashed with repeatedly until he left Downing Street last November. His allies were alleged to have referred to her as ‘Princess Nut Nut’, which enraged Mr Johnson and upset his then fiancee.

In May, the PM’s former top adviser pulled no punches as he repeatedly attacked Mr Johnson during a marathon evidence session with MPs into the Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

The joint session of the health and science select committees was punctuated by a series of astonishing claims which threaten to destabilise Mr Johnson’s premiership.

Mr Cummings stunned Westminster as he said he believed Mr Johnson was ‘unfit for the job’ of PM.

The Vote Leave maverick said it was ‘crackers’ that Mr Johnson ever ended up in Number 10 as he painted a picture of a vain and dithering figure who is obsessed with the media.

Mr Cummings told MPs that Mr Johnson kept changing his mind on what to do ‘every time the Telegraph wrote an editorial’.

He claimed Mr Johnson is ‘about a thousand times too obsessed with the media’ and argued it was no wonder pandemic communications had sometimes resembled a ‘disaster zone’ because the PM ‘changes his mind 10 times a day’. 

Boris Johnson was accused last night of lying to his own sleaze watchdog about the lavish makeover of the Downing Street flat.

An official report revealed that the Prime Minister had texted Tory donor Lord Brownlow asking for more cash more than a year ago.

But Mr Johnson previously assured Lord Geidt, the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests, that he did not know who was paying for the £112,549 refurbishment at the time.

He could now face yet another probe into the ‘wallpapergate’ scandal, exposed by the Daily Mail, in the wake of the damning findings by the Electoral Commission.

The commission yesterday fined the Conservative Party £17,800 for breaking political finance law over the saga.

Downing Street insisted Mr Johnson had not lied to his adviser and said: ‘The Prime Minister has acted in accordance with the rules at all times and he acted following discussions with Lord Geidt. He has made all necessary declarations.’

But the PM was put under fresh pressure by his former right-hand man Dominic Cummings, who was in Downing Street when the expensive redecoration works were being planned for the living quarters above No 11.

He wrote on Twitter that he had told the PM ‘in extremely blunt and unrepeatable terms’ in January and the summer of 2020 that ‘his desire for secret donations to fund wallpaper etc was illegal and unethical’.

Mr Cummings said: ‘He pursued it throughout the year trying to keep me/others in dark and lied to Geidt/CCHQ [Conservative Party headquarters] to cover it up.’ He added: ‘I’ve said repeatedly for months: a) obviously PM lied to Geidt, b) Geidt could only conclude as he did by … not interviewing anybody actually involved with the flat!’

In February this year this newspaper told how Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie had been plotting against a ‘female Whitehall official who refused to sign off a large taxpayers’ bill for her refurbishment of the Downing Street flat, including expensive wallpaper’.

The Mail then revealed how secret plans had been hatched to get Tory donors to pay for the decoration by eco-friendly interior designer Lulu Lytle, as the PM privately complained he could not afford the ‘gold wallpaper’ Mrs Johnson was buying.

There was also a scheme to set up a charitable trust for the maintenance of the historic Downing Street buildings, with Tory donor Lord Brownlow made its chairman.

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, who learned of the machinations through this newspaper, began investigating and passed his findings to ministerial watchdog Lord Geidt.

In May Lord Geidt cleared the PM of breaching the ministerial code, only saying that he had ‘unwisely’ ‘allowed the refurbishment of the apartment at No 11 Downing Street to proceed without more rigorous regard for how this would be funded’.

This conclusion was based on Mr Johnson telling him ‘that he knew nothing about such payments until immediately prior to media reports in February 2021’.

But a separate investigation by the Electoral Commission, which published its findings yesterday, uncovered evidence that on November 29, 2020, the Prime Minister ‘messaged Lord Brownlow via WhatsApp asking him to authorise further, at that stage unspecified, refurbishment works on the residence’.

The report provides the most detailed account yet of the complex web of payments, totalling £112,549.12, involved in doing up the flat.

The Cabinet Office paid the invoices initially, the money was subsequently repaid by CCHQ and then Lord Brownlow and his firm Huntswood Associates made donations to the party to cover the costs. In order to clear up the mess, Mr Johnson settled the bill directly with the designer earlier this year – so she had to pay back those who had originally paid her.

The Electoral Commission found that the majority of the £67,801 given to the Tories by Lord Brownlow’s firm last October should have been reported as a donation, but was not.

The party was fined for ‘failing to accurately report the full value of the donation’ and ‘contravening the requirement to keep proper accounting records’.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: ‘The Prime Minister must now explain why he lied to the British public saying he didn’t know who was behind No 11 flat refurb – all the while he was WhatsApping the donor asking for more money.

‘He’s not only broken the law but made a mockery of the standards we expect from our prime ministers.’ She has asked Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone to investigate the discrepancy between what the PM told Lord Geidt and what the Electoral Commission found.

A spokesman for the watchdog’s office declined to comment.

A CCHQ spokesman said: ‘We have been in constant contact with the Electoral Commission and have sought their advice as to how the transaction should be reported since it was made. We are considering whether to appeal.’