Tories rage at Cummings' 'bitter' broadside against PM's wife Carrie

Dominic Cummings and Carrie Symonds have 'f***ed us all' and pursued petty squabbles about who really 'pulls the strings' in Boris Johnson's No 10 while 'the whole country is on fire', a former aide told MailOnline today.

The architect of Brexit told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg last night that Mrs Johnson - the PM's third wife and mother of his youngest son Wilfred - 'wanted rid' of him and his Vote Leave loyalists so she could appoint her own 'complete clowns'. 

Mr Cummings was today 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.

An ex-aide told MailOnline: ‘Neither of them are f***ing great. She obviously is Princess Nut Nut. Between them they have f***ed us all. They have fights about her appointing her friends to something. Meanwhile the whole country is on fire'. 

While a senior Tory adviser said: 'He is right about Carrie. It is ridiculous she has so much latitude and Boris is giving her carte blanche. But how many times can you say it?' 

After watching last night's on social media pondered whether he was 'dead jealous' about Carrie's relationship with the PM as his own influence was waning - with Mrs Johnson 'breaking up their bromance'.

Mr Cummings said last night: 'We were in a situation where the Prime Minister's girlfriend is trying to get rid of us and appoint complete clowns to certain key jobs.' 

Home Office minister Victoria Atkins said today that Mrs Johnson should be left alone to 'get on with the job of being married to the Prime Minister'.  

An insider said Mr Cummings was making all the mistakes he criticised other people for, coming across as 'arrogant' and failing to make any impact on the PM.

'He is becoming they story. His whole thing is politicians are egotistical, venal, lacking self-awareness. Yet he seems to have become the things he spent the whole time railing against,' they said.

'He knows it's always better to show rather than talk about process. Why talk about a process like the coup that has failed?

'It is a law of diminishing returns. And the issue for him is from the polling it doesn't seem to be cutting through.' 

A senior Conservative told MailOnline of the interview: ‘The consensus is he did badly. This is a man who lost his job and is bitter about it.’

The source said it was stretching credibility to blame Carrie for all the things that were going wrong. ‘He wouldn’t know, because he is out of the loop now…

‘It is possible to say she has more influence than most spouses, but that is because she is a political animal.’

Another former adviser told MailOnline: ‘The dude is just delusional… the PM had just come back with an 80-seat majority in 2019, in what world are they going to replace the PM?

‘Cummings does this thing a bit like John Lennon, the idea that he stands up for the little people and the common man. But much like John Lennon he’s actually an elite. It is a disguise that he puts on to do things that make him look important. He has no respect for the office of PM. He only thinks of himself.’

The plugged in ex-aide added: ‘Neither of them are f***ing great. She obviously is princess Nut Nut. Between them they have f***ed us all.

‘They have fights about her appointing her friends to something. Meanwhile the whole country is on fire. The discussion on who has got what job in No10 - it doesn’t matter.’

Home Office minister Victoria Atkins hit back on Carrie's behalf today, after the PM's wife was compared to Lady Macbeth.

She said: 'I think Mrs Johnson is married to the Prime Minister and she's a person in her own right.

'I feel very uncomfortable when some people delve into description, such as what you've just used [Lady Macbeth].

'She's a professional woman in her own right, she happens to be married to the Prime Minister and I think we should just get on with the job of being married to the Prime Minister'. 

In his first television interview, the architect of Brexit told the BBC that Carrie Johnson - the Prime Minister's partner and now wife - wanted 'rid of all of us'.

Mr Cummings said she believed then and now that Mr Johnson didn't 'have a plan'. She was determined to 'pull the strings' and fire her enemies and appoint her favourites, he said in the hour-long interview.

The ex-adviser claimed that this meant that he and his Vote Leave colleagues would be trying to get rid of and replace Mr Johnson by the summer, or have been sacked themselves.

'Before even mid-January we were having meetings in Number 10 saying it's clear that Carrie wants rid of all of us,' he told the BBC's Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg.

'At that point, we were already saying by the summer either we'll all have gone from here or we'll be in the process of trying to get rid of him and get someone else in as Prime Minister.'

The extraordinary revelation is one in a series of claims made in the hour-long interview, including that Mr Johnson had wanted to see the Queen in person at the start of the pandemic. Mr Cummings said he had to persuade the PM not to have his weekly audience with Her Majesty in case he infected and killed her. Number 10 denied the allegation.

Mr Cummings - who left Downing St last autumn following the power struggle with the then Carrie Symonds - also told Ms Kuenssberg that Mr Johnson was not the 'right person' to run the country. He suggested Mr Johnson had only been selected to lead the Conservative Party and the country to resolve Brexit.

'He doesn't have a plan, he doesn't know how to be Prime Minister and we only got him in there because we had to solve a certain problem not because he was the right person to be running the country,' he said.

Soon after the December 2019 election, the former adviser said that he realised Mr Johnson's then partner Carrie was going to be a problem.

'Carrie's view was - and is - the Prime Minister doesn't have a plan and he doesn't know how Whitehall works,' he said.

He outlined what he thought were her thought processes: 'Someone is going to settle the agenda, it can either be the civil service or it can be Dominic and the Vote Leave team, or it can be me.'

Mr Cummings continued: 'In 2019, her view was: 'Better that it's Dominic and the Vote Leave team than the civil service because that's the route to winning and staying in Number 10.'

'As soon as the election was won, her view was: 'Why should it be Dominic and the Vote Leave team? Why shouldn't it be me that's pulling the strings?'

'The situation we found ourselves in is that within days we were in a situation where the Prime Minister's girlfriend is trying to get rid of us and appoint complete clowns to certain key jobs.'

Reflecting on the end of his relationship with Mr Johnson, he said it had already started to fracture by summer 2020. He said that his former boss was furious that he was being cast as a 'puppet' for the Vote Leave gang.

'First of all, he [Boris Johnson] was, he was fed up with the media portrayal of him being a kind of puppet for the Vote Leave team. It was driving him round the bend,' he said.

'I had a plan. I was trying to get things done. He didn't have a plan, He didn't have an agenda, you know.

'The Prime Minister's only agenda is buy more trains, buy more buses, have more bikes and build the world's most stupid tunnel to Ireland, that's it.'

He said that the pair fell out over Covid and he accused the PM of 'not having acted' in September last year when the second wave of cases began.

Disagreements over Mrs Johnson also came between them, he said.

'I thought that his girlfriend was interfering with erm, appointments,' he said.

'She wanted to have people fired and she wanted to have people promoted in ways that I thought were unethical and unprofessional. And that also led to a big argument between us.'

A Number 10 spokesman told the BBC: 'Political appointments are entirely made by the Prime Minister.'

CARRIE AND THE COUP: CUMMINGS PLOTTED TO OUST BORIS AS HE LOST POWER BATTLE TO PM'S PARTNER

The most explosive claim Mr Cummings made was against the Prime Minister's wife Carrie, who he lost out to in a power struggle last year.

He said she wanted him gone as soon as Mr Johnson was elected in 2019 and wanted to replace him with 'clowns'.

He said: 'Carrie's view was and is - the PM doesn't have a plan and doesn't' know how Whitehall works. In 2019 her view was better that its Dom and Vote Leave team than civil service.

'But as soon as election was won it was, why should it be Dom and Vote Leave team, why shouldn't it be me.'

Mr Cunmings continued: 'Literally immediately after the election it was already clear that this was a problem. We were having meetings in No 10 saying that Carrie all wants us gone.

'The situation we found ourselves in is that the PM's girlfriend wanted to get rid of us and appoint clowns to certain key jobs.

'We actually have some pretty good judgement about who is competent and who isn't competent.'

He said: 'There was a whole official process gone through to hire an excellent young woman, and after months of this process happening it was all just thrown in the bin, and the person who the prime minister's wanted to be appointed was just suddenly appointed.

'Me and others said ''this is just a completely hopeless way for things to be run'' and that led to a lot of tension.'

He also said he was looking to oust Boris Johnson as Prime Minister only weeks after helping him secure an 80-seat majority.

Mr Cummings, who left No 10 in the autumn after a power struggle, accused Mr Johnson of not having a plan and said he 'doesn't know how to be Prime Minister'.

He also laid bare the extent of the fractious relationship between former Vote Leave officials and Carrie only weeks after the landslide win.

'Before even mid-January we were having meetings in Number 10 saying it's clear that Carrie (Johnson) wants rid of all of us,' said the former de facto chief of staff.

'At that point we were already saying by the summer either we'll all have gone from here or we'll be in the process of trying to get rid of him and get someone else in as Prime Minister.'

Mr Cummings claimed that in 2019, ahead of the election, Mrs Johnson was happy to have Vote Leave officials working in Downing Street, but this later changed.

He said: 'As soon as the election was won her view was, 'why should it be Dominic and the Vote Leave team?' Why shouldn't it be me that's pulling the strings?''

Ms Kuenssberg accused him if he saw himself as superior in his relationship with the Prime Minister.

He said: 'I think that I had a plan and I was trying to get things done. He didn't have a plan and didn't have an agenda.

'You know the Prime Minister's only agenda is buy more trains, buy more buses, have more bikes and build the world's most stupid tunnel to Ireland — that's it.'

Earlier in the interview Mr Cummings admitted he thinks other people see him as 'generally a nightmare'. 

EVEN 'HOPELESS' BORIS THINKS IT'S 'LUDICROUS' HE'S PM: CUMMINGS LAUNCHES HATCHET JOB ON OLD BOSS

Mr Cummings was also quick to continue to unleash his fury on his old boss the Prime Minister.

He said Mr Johnson thought it was 'ludicrous' he was PM after he took over in Downing Street and said he calls the Daily Telegraph his 'real boss'.

The former chief adviser said the he also made the comment about his old university friend and fellow leader David Cameron's time in office.

He claimed Mr Johnson has an 'odd self awareness mode' and 'hopeless' traits and he knows he should not be in his position in his latest bombshells about his old boss.

Mr Cummings said: 'He's a very complicated character. He's unusual in a lot of politicians in having a sort of odd, self awareness mode.

'He kind of knows in all sorts of ways that it's ludicrous for him to be in that position.

'He said that to me a few times before the referendum, he said that on the 24 June, the day after the referendum in 2016.'

He added the PM said: 'It's ludicrous that Dave [Cameron] was prime minister, it's ludicrous that George [Osborne] wants to be prime minister. The whole thing's ludicrous.'

In one of the more shocking allegations tonight, he claimed the PM still refers to the Daily Telegraph as his 'real boss' and said it was 'hard to tell' if he was joking.

Mr Cummings added the Prime Minister was being 'driven round the bend' by the idea in the media he was a puppet for Vote Leave bosses. 

CUMMINGS SAYS COVID WAS 'LIKE A DISASTER MOVIE' AND BORIS 'PUT POLITICS ABOVE PEOPLE'S LIVES' 

In other parts of the interview the journalist pushed him on the government's coronavirus response.

He claimed the Prime Minister thought Covid would be a passing 'fad' like Swine Flu was and added it was 'like a disaster movie'.

Mr Cummings also claimed the PM was reluctant to tighten Covid restrictions last autumn because 'the people who are dying are essentially all over 80'.

He told the BBC: 'It was like a disaster movie but it was real. even in the first week of march [BJ] said 'business as usual', he didn't take it seriously. his view was that it was like swine flu and that he had seen these sort of scares before.'

He painted an image of the Prime Minister flip-flopping over whether lockdowns were a good idea.

Over whether to bring in a second lockdown, he said Sir Keir Starmer had called for it so Mr Johnson thought it would be political suicide to be bounced into one.

He said; 'He had a bunch of Tory MPs screaming at him, some of them similarly with Brexit had lost their minds and were saying all kinds of complete fake news about Covid.

'And third he had the Telegraph, who he referred to as ''my real boss'. So he had those three things all pushing him not to act.'

Mr Cummings also revealed the government's plan of herd immunity was questioned by a 'very, very smart physicist'.

He said they spoke to him ahead of lockdown and said: 'Look it doesn't seem this has been thought out, has any of this been properly checked?'

And he said they asked him if they could look into another solution to beating the pandemic.

'I SHOULD HAVE QUIT OR COME CLEAN OVER BARNARD CASTLE': CUMMINGS SAYS HE DIDN'T TELL FULL TRUTH

Mr Cummings was probed on the Barnard Castle fallout, which saw him issue a rare speech from Downing Street.

He had driven with his family from London to Durham to his parents' home despite having Covid symptoms.

But he slammed the way the government decided to handle the incident as 'extremely chaotic'.

 He said: 'I'd had repeated security problems at my house going back to 2019, these problems had re-emerged... I'd said maybe I'd just move to my Dads farm in Durham.

'My wife was kind of ill but not with all the right symptoms.

'The situation was extremely chaotic... the plan was when I discussed it with the PM - he agreed we should just say nothing about it.

'What then happened is that he suddenly changed his mind and said we can't stick with the initial plan.

'I said I'm not going into the security stuff and the whole thing turned into a whole mess.

'Everything I said in the rose garden was true but i didn't go into all the security concerns in the background.

'There's also no doubt that the way we handled the whole thing was wrong - what I should've done is resigned, or spoken to my family and said we're just going to have to come clean about the whole thing.'

NO APOLOGIES OVER BREXIT: CUMMINGS SAYS £350m NHS CLAIM WAS MORE TRUTHFUL THAN MOST SLOGANS

The interview also saw him grilled by the journalist about Brexit and the infamous NHS figure he had plonked on the side of a red bus.

He refused to apologise for it but said people are entitled to oppose Brexit and think it was a mistake.

He smirked when asked about the

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