Boris Johnson's senior adviser Dominic Cummings is expected to leave his position by the end of the year.
Mr Cummings told the BBC "rumours of me threatening to resign are invented", after speculation this week.
But he added that his "position hasn't changed since my January blog" when he said that he wanted to make himself "largely redundant" by the end of 2020.
And a senior Downing Street source said that Mr Cummings would be "out of government" by Christmas.
It follows a turbulent week at No 10 in which Lee Cain - the director of communications and an ally of Mr Cummings - also stood down amid reports of internal tensions at Downing Street.
The pair are long-time colleagues, having worked together on the Leave campaign during the EU referendum - and Mr Cain's departure prompted rumours that his ally would also step down.
Mr Cummings ran the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign in the EU referendum and was behind the group's "take back control" slogan.
After Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, he hired Mr Cummings to be his senior adviser and six months later the pair's strategy of stressing "Get Brexit Done" as the main campaign message helped the party win a larger majority in the general election.
Mr Cummings has become more of a public figure in the past year and was forced into holding his own news conference at Downing Street in the summer, following controversy over him making a trip to the north of England when non-essential travel was banned at the height of the coronavirus lockdown.
Analysis
By Nicholas Watt, Newsnight political editor
In the Dominic Cummings camp, the news that he will be leaving Downing Street before Christmas is no great shakes.
"Dom was never going to be there for long," one friend told me.
But there is no doubt that Cummings was deeply dismayed by what he regarded as unfair treatment of his chief lieutenant, Lee Cain, who resigned as communications director on Wednesday night. Mr Cummings had a number of tense conversations with Boris Johnson.
The departure of the two standard bearers of the Vote Leave campaign backroom from Downing Street marks a seminal moment.
We can expect a less abrasive Downing Street and a strong focus on climate change.
The prime minister also wants to adopt a softer image if, as he hopes, the vaccine allows us to enter in a post-Covid world. Mr Cummings has his admirers in government but also his critics.
One told me: "Brexit is done, he is done."
Speaking to the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Cummings denied that he had threatened to resign after Mr Cain's departure - and instead pointed out that he had indicated his own plans nearly a year ago.
1. Senior No 10 source says Dominic Cummings is out by Christmas - after hours of speculation HE tells me 'rumours of me threatening to resign are invented, rumours of me asking others to resign are invented'... ..
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) November 12, 2020
2. He said 'tonight's rumours that somehow the Brexit negotiations are involved are invented and comical to anybody who knows whats happening in no10' but when asked about rumours he would quit at Christmas Cummings said ...
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) November 12, 2020
3. 'My position hasn't changed since my January blog' - when he planned to make himself 'redundant' by the end of 2020 - he's off
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) November 12, 2020
4. This is what he wrote in Jan - 'We want to improve performance and make me much less important — and within a year largely redundant' - here when he was advertising for misfits and weirdos - https://t.co/LoOdn6ngMi
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) November 12, 2020
Writing in his blog in January 2020 to encourage "weirdos" to work in No 10, Mr Cummings said he wanted to "improve performance" in government in order to "make me less important - and within a year largely redundant".
Prior to his work with the Brexit campaign, he had worked for Iain Duncan Smith when he was Conservative Party leader and Michael Gove at the Department of Education.
He also ran a successful campaign to oppose a regionally elected assembly in north-east England.
Since taking his job at Number 10, he has not been a popular figure with everyone within the governing party, and was known for making disparaging comments about some of Mr Johnson's own MPs, including labelling Brexiteer MPs "useful idiots".
It was widely suggested that former Conservative leader Sir John Major was talking about Mr Cummings when we warned Mr Johnson in a speech in September 2019 not to rely on "overmighty advisers".
Sir John, who led the country from 1990 to 1997, added: "I offer the prime minister some friendly advice: get rid of these advisers before they poison the political atmosphere beyond repair. And do it quickly."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiL2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3VrLXBvbGl0aWNzLTU0OTI1MzIy0gEzaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYW1wL3VrLXBvbGl0aWNzLTU0OTI1MzIy?oc=5
2020-11-13 01:06:00Z
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