Dominic Cummings despises media commentators – but has become one himself

Dominic Cummings is very cross with the prime minister, who was until last year the useful means by which Cummings “captured” control of the government. Cummings’s rule in No 10 was short-lived because it turned out that Boris Johnson was better at using Cummings than the other way round. No wonder Cummings is angry.

However, the reason Cummings says he is cross now is “the prime minister’s plan to break his election promise and raise taxes”. The result is an entertaining post on his subscription blog in which he expresses himself with his usual furious fluency, peppered with insider insights from his time in Downing Street.

“This is bad policy and bad politics,” Cummings declares. “Labour will have lots of support not just from economists but from Tory voters who don’t want to see those working for average incomes – crushed already by a decade of feckless Tory rule – pay for another middle-class subsidy.” (I can see “Crushed by a decade of feckless Tory rule – PM’s former adviser” on Labour posters at the next election.)

And he says this disaster has come about because “meetings now are constructed ‘to avoid annoying the PM’, not to figure out answers to hard questions”.

Some might quibble with Cummings’s argument, pointing out that Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has already announced a corporation tax rise in 2023 – but the prime minister’s ex-aide is always polite about Sunak, so he hasn’t mentioned that.

Some might also question the parallel with George HW Bush breaking his “read my lips: no new taxes” pledge, given that public opinion is in favour of higher taxes to pay for the NHS and realises that the pandemic justifies breaking manifesto promises.

Even so, it is good to have a vigorous contribution to the debate, and I am all for pundits monetising their opinions by charging what the market will bear – £10 a month in Cummings’s case, with his subscription blog.

His problem may be that he has spilt most of the inside beans already, so now has to convince subscribers to pay for his opinions alone, with fewer and fewer references to the prime minister letting his “girlfriend interfere with government and whisper audibly in your ear while you’re talking to colleagues”.

It is not as if he was so successful in government that people will pay indefinitely for his insights. He ran a brilliant Brexit campaign five years ago but most of what he did in government was counterproductive, and it was other people – principally the much-despised Boris Johnson – who forced the election, won it, and Got Brexit Done.

Fortunately, Cummings has many colourful opinions. Earlier this week he posted an appeal to true conservatives in the Republican Party to stop Donald Trump from winning the 2024 nomination. He wasn’t offering his services (“for personal and professional reasons I’m not the right person to run this”), just his advice. I doubt if it will have any practical effect, though, because the Republican Party is increasingly being taken over by people who think the last election was stolen.

All the same, Cummings, who despises media commentators, has become a good one himself.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator