Boris in a spin: can the PM find his way again?

Something strange is going on in Westminster: nearly every minister and Tory MP has a spring in their step. It’s not (just) the vaccine breakthrough, or the magic money tree now bearing such fruit in the back garden of HM Treasury. The liberation-of-Paris feel in locked-down Westminster is inspired by the departure of Boris Johnson’s senior Vote Leave aides, Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain. Tories of all stripes seem to think they will now get what they want.

When the news broke that the pair were to leave Downing Street with immediate effect — following a power tussle with the Prime Minister’s partner Carrie Symonds and new press spokeswoman Allegra Stratton — many in the parliamentary party were celebrating. This was a chance for Johnson to reset his government and finally listen to them. Member of the One Nation caucus used a Zoom call to discuss how to push Johnson’s government back to the centre. The Northern Research Group heralded the Prime Minister’s recommitment to the north after a meeting with the man himself. Cabinet ministers sent each other WhatsApp messages reading: ‘Phew!’ Under the old regime, some senior members of the cabinet were even banned from having one-on-one meetings with the Prime Minister.

‘There’s a vacuum so everyone is trying to get their philosophy out,’ explains a Tory MP. Every faction of the party blames their woes on Cummings and most think everything will now be better. But not all people in the party are optimistic. ‘I fear it’s King Charles I,’ says one weary backbencher. ‘We get rid of the Duke of Buckingham and then realise King Charles is the bigger problem.’

There has been no shortage of palace intrigue in No. 10 in recent days. After Cain’s appointment as chief of staff was blocked by figures who included the Prime Minister’s fiancée, Downing Street has seemed more like a comic opera than a place of high office.