Who is Dominic Cummings and has he resigned as Boris Johnson’s chief adviser?
VOTE Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings is now embedded in No10 as Boris Johnson’s senior adviser.
The inscrutable mastermind must be rattled by the current state of Brexit – but has nonethelss described it as a “walk in the park”. Here’s the latest on the elusive brainiac.
Who is Dominic Cummings?
Dominic Cummings was seen as the mastermind of the Brexit campaign.
He is a political adviser and strategist, and served as the Campaign Director of Vote Leave.
Cummings is a former special adviser to Michael Gove – under Boris Johnson, he worked as the PM’s senior advisor.
Born in Durham, he is the son of an oil rig project manager and a special needs teacher.
Cummings attended Durham School and Exeter College, Oxford, graduating in 1994 with a First in Ancient and Modern History.
In 2011, he married Mary Wakefield, deputy editor of The Spectator.
Has Dominic Cummings resigned?
The former advisor raised eyebrows after penning a blog post urging leave voters to back the tories.
Critics have suggested Cummigs may have broken election purdah rules with the post – as aides aren’t supposed to “interfere” with the election campaign.
However, it has since been reported that Cummings had stepped down from his post on November 6.
In his post he urged Brexiteers to back the Tories – adding that if Johnson failed to secure a majority, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon could take power.
Cummings claimed the pair would “rig” a second referendum.
When did he join the Vote Leave campaign?
Cummings became Campaign Director of Vote Leave upon the creation of the organisation in October 2015.
He is credited with having created the official slogan of Vote Leave, “Take back control” and with being the leading strategist of the campaign.
Cummings was questioned and criticised by MPs at the Treasury Select Committee in April 2016 for creating misleading leaflets for the Leave campaign.
His campaign strategy was summarised as: “Don’t talk about immigration”; “Do talk about business”; “Don’t make the referendum final”; “Do keep mentioning the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the over-reach of the European Union’s Court of Justice”.
More on Brexit
Vote Leave emerged victorious in the June 2016 referendum which resulted in a 52 per cent vote to leave the European Union.
He was named as one of “Debrett’s 500 2016” people of influence.
He used data-driven campaigning to win over undecided voters by pushing a small number of key messages – and came up with the slogan “take back control”.
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