Boris Johnson at last opportunity, says Conservative MPs after Lee Caine disagreement | Policy

Boris Johnson He has one last chance to fix a dysfunctional Downing Street process in crisis, conservative lawmakers warned after bitter infighting led to the abrupt departure of one of his closest aides.

He said a series of conservatives No. 10 Communications Director Lee Caen resignsAfter Johnson’s fiancée and his close circle prevented his promotion to the position of Chief of Staff, it became the tenth rank that was torn apart by the factions, cut off from the House of Representatives and moved from one crisis to the next.

Amid renewed rumors that Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s chief adviser and another graduate of the Leave the Vote campaign, may also be planning to resign, a senior Conservative MP called for Johnson publicly for “control.”

Others expressed despair at the scene that saw Carrie Symonds, Johnson’s fiancée and former Conservative press advisor, join the protesters against Caine’s promotion as the government grapples with the highest death toll from the Corona virus in Europe and the looming deadline for Britain’s exit from the European Union. .

“They are children. The ideologies and the idiots who are obsessed with themselves,” said one parliamentarian, who requested anonymity. Another, who requested anonymity, said the prime minister should take responsibility for internal disputes at such a pivotal time for the country. The Johnson-led government has undergone a series of major epidemiological shifts, including national lockdown measures, vacation support, exam results and free school meals.

“The view of many colleagues today is that we are witnessing the end of hope for Boris as the president of the second term,” they said. “He left a void in the government center and is being filled by Cummings, who does not like the Conservative Party, and his fiancée who lives above the shop. It’s like the script from a lousy TV series.”

Official figures showed 33,470 cases of coronavirus were recorded daily in the UK on Thursday. At a Downing Street press conference, NHS England’s medical director, Stephen Boyce, said the number of Covid-19 patients has tripled in one month to more than 12,700.

Business Minister Alok Sharma, who appeared alongside him in Downing Street, insisted that the internal fights had not distracted the ministers. He said, “I can tell you that we are all in government focusing on one thing, and that is protecting lives and livelihoods.”

But a senior House member, Sir Roger Gill, said Downing Street should “focus all its efforts on the pandemic and on the end to the Brexit game,” and called for Cummings to be fired in favor of an appropriate chief of staff.

“Frankly, this is a distraction that cannot and should not be allowed to happen, and the prime minister must control it,” he said. “For my money, Cummings is a responsibility and what the prime minister needs and deserves is a first-class chief of staff and a very heavyweight. I think the expression currently used is big pants.”

Tobias Ellwood, chair of the defense select committee, told the Guardian that Downing Street was “late to a large-scale quake” and is struggling to get top of the broader policy agenda.

Ellwood said Johnson was “facing an unprecedented series of challenges, the magnitude of which have not been seen since the war,” including Covid, Brexit and the economic downturn.

“With the new US president focusing on re-establishing Western resolve and tackling climate change, we must also strive to play a more active role on the global stage,” Ellwood said. “The government machine must adapt or it will overwhelm.”

Downing Street declined to comment on reports that Cummings had angrily threatened destruction because of the way it was perceived that Cain, his close ally, had been forced to leave, or that Johnson still aimed to appoint a new chief of staff to control No 10 operations.

She confirmed that James Slack, currently the keynote speaker at Johnson, would take over Kane. Unlike Cain, he would remain a civil servant rather than being appointed politically.

A strongly pro-Brexit MP said he hoped the changes would be a “reset”, but warned that time was running out for Johnson to stabilize the Downing Street ship.

“I am not motivated by any hostility towards Dominic Cummings.“ I think it is a failed operation, ”the attorney said.“ You don’t make the teacher in charge of the administration. If you get rid of all of these thoughts, it is up to others to see if they are actually applicable. We need a chief of staff who makes talking to people their business.

“This is really important. If this reset doesn’t work, and we have a bad set of elections in May, it gets worse.”

Another blunt one was: “There is a ministerial revolt against the rule of the terrorist Dom. Reducing the power of the Vote Leave Gang is desirable and hopefully a turning point.”

A source close to one of the ministers said, “The problem with Downing Street is that they have been in campaign mode since they won the election. They are fighting with everyone in Whitehall and that goes back to Cummings.”

“It seems they do not know how to govern. After eleven months, they should lead a united front, but they are still working on the image of the vote.”

A series of members of the House of Representatives said they had virtually no contact with Beijing or Cummings, but were desperate for government messages and a lack of communication with MPs.

One said, “We end up with all these flawed bills, which require endless transformations, and MPs do not feel heard or appreciated.” “We did not come to this job to be a glorified choir.”

News of Cain’s departure, which will take place at the end of the year, appeared in a statement from Downing Street sent late Wednesday. This comes after it was understood that Johnson had offered him the position of Chief of Staff last week, which led to a significant decline inside the number 10, with the participation of Symonds strongly, as well as Munira Mirza, head of the number 10 policy unit.

The infighting erupted in part due to the arrival of Allegra Stratton on Downing Street, a former journalist and advisor to Rishi Sunak, the advisor. Stratton will become the face of his planned daily televised briefings on Downing Street. Cain came up with the idea, but he is known to be against Stratton getting the job. He had also clashed with Symonds previously.

Kerr Starmer described the scenes as “pathetic.” The Labor leader told LBC Radio: “I think millions of people will wake up this morning scratching their heads and say, ‘What’s going on on the ground?’?” “We are in the middle of a pandemic, we are all worried about our health and our families, we are all worried about our jobs, and that’s a lot quarrels about behind door number 10.”