Dominic Cummings: PM's top adviser leaves No 10 to 'clear the air' - BBC News

Dominic Cummings has left Downing Street after internal battles over his role as Boris Johnson's chief adviser.

The BBC understands he will continue to work from home, on issues such as mass coronavirus testing, until the middle of December.

The prime minister is said to want to "clear the air and move on".

Mr Cummings has been at the heart of a No 10 power struggle, which has also seen communications director Lee Cain leave.

Several Tory MPs have welcomed the pair's departure as a chance for Mr Johnson to make a fresh start.

The BBC's Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg said Mr Cummings departure from No 10 had been brought forward given the "upset in the team" in Downing Street, for which she said it had been a "difficult week".

• What led to Cummings' departure?
• Dominic Cummings: The campaigner in No 10

She said there had been long-running tensions between different factions in No 10 but this "slow burning fuse exploded fast when it finally happened".

Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain are long-time colleagues, having worked together on the Leave campaign during the EU referendum.

When Mr Cain's exit was announced on Wednesday, it prompted rumours that his ally would also step down.

In response, Mr Cummings told the BBC "rumours of me threatening to resign are invented" but said his "position hasn't changed" since he wrote in January that he wanted to make himself "largely redundant" by the end of 2020.

'Different approach'

Pending what is expected to be a wide-ranging shake-up in No 10, Lord Lister - a close ally of Mr Johnson's who served as his deputy when he was London Mayor - has been named interim chief of staff, a position which had been vacant.

Leaving through the front door, carrying a cardboard box - Dominic Cummings departure tonight was very public.

It came after a conversation with the prime minister - and after a tumultuous few days in Downing Street. He'll still be on the books until next month, but isn't expected to return to No 10.

Some in the Conservative Party - and in government - will be toasting his departure tonight. He angered some with his style - while many Tory MPs believe Boris Johnson had too tight a group of advisors from the Vote Leave campaign.

Many others in government and beyond credit him with helping deliver Brexit - both in the 2016 referendum and then in Number Ten as one of Boris Johnson's key advisors.

Some hope his departure will mark a change of style in government. But remember the ultimate boss is the prime minister - and the direction in the next few months will be up to him.

Boris Johnson worked with Mr Cummings on the 2016 Vote Leave campaign and hired Mr Cummings to be his senior adviser, when he became prime minister.

Six months later the pair's "Get Brexit Done" campaign message helped Mr Johnson win a large majority in the general election.

Mr Cummings became 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.

He had a notoriously difficult relationship with Conservative MPs, several of whom have welcomed his exit and said it was time for things to be done differently in Downing Street.

"Both Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain were pretty dismissive of backbenchers and sometimes ministers and secretaries of state, and I don't think that was helpful," said former Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers.

"I do think it's important that whoever takes over has a different approach."

Sir Bernard Jenkin said it was time to restore "respect, integrity and trust" between No 10 and Tory MPs while veteran Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale said it was "an opportunity to muck out the stables".

Who is Dominic Cummings?

EPA

• Dominic Cummings, 48, ran the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign in the EU referendum and was behind the group's "take back control" slogan
• Prior to the referendum he worked for Iain Duncan Smith when he was Conservative Party leader and Michael Gove at the Department for Education
• Born in Durham, Mr Cummings went to a state primary school before being privately educated at Durham School. He graduated from Oxford University with a first-class degree in modern history
• A longstanding Eurosceptic, he cut his campaigning teeth as a director of the anti-euro Business for Sterling group and once ran a successful campaign to oppose a regionally elected assembly in north-east England
• He was portrayed by actor Benedict Cumberbatch in the Channel 4 drama Brexit: The Uncivil War

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2020-11-13 19:09:00Z
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Dominic Cummings: PM's top adviser to leave No 10 with immediate effect - BBC News

Reuters

Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings has left Number 10 with immediate effect, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says.

Mr Cummings spoke to the PM earlier, she said, and it was decided it was best for him to go now rather than next month after days of turmoil in No 10.

The former Vote Leave supremo had been at the centre of a power struggle in Downing Street this week.

The PM's director of communications Lee Cain has also left.

Mr Cummings was seen leaving No 10 a short while ago carrying a cardboard box.

On Thursday, Downing Street said Mr Cummings would be leaving by Christmas after a row over how No 10 is run and the appointment of a new chief of staff to Mr Johnson.

But Laura Kuenssberg said his departure had been brought forward given the "upset in the team" in Downing Street, for which she said it had been a "difficult week".

• What led to Cummings' departure?
• Dominic Cummings: The campaigner in No 10

She said there had been long-running tensions between different factions in No 10 but this "slow burning fuse exploded fast when it finally happened".

Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain are long-time colleagues, having worked together on the Leave campaign during the EU referendum.

When Mr Cain's exit was announced on Wednesday, it prompted rumours that his ally would also step down.

In response, Mr Cummings told the BBC "rumours of me threatening to resign are invented" but said his "position hasn't changed" since he wrote in January that he wanted to make himself "largely redundant" by the end of 2020.

Boris Johnson worked with Mr Cummings on the 2016 Vote Leave campaign and hired Mr Cummings to be his senior adviser, when he became prime minister.

Six months later the pair's "Get Brexit Done" campaign message helped Mr Johnson win a large 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.

Who is Dominic Cummings?

EPA

• Dominic Cummings, 48, ran the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign in the EU referendum and was behind the group's "take back control" slogan
• Prior to the referendum he worked for Iain Duncan Smith when he was Conservative Party leader and Michael Gove at the Department for Education
• Born in Durham, Mr Cummings went to a state primary school before being privately educated at Durham School. He graduated from Oxford University with a first-class degree in modern history
• A longstanding Eurosceptic, he cut his campaigning teeth as a director of the anti-euro Business for Sterling group and once ran a successful campaign to oppose a regionally elected assembly in north-east England
• He was portrayed by actor Benedict Cumberbatch in the Channel 4 drama Brexit: The Uncivil War

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2020-11-13 17:49:00Z
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COVID-19 infections will rise to pre-lockdown levels if tier system returns, SAGE warns - Sky News

Returning to a tiered system of coronavirus restrictions next month will cause infections to rise to the levels which prompted England to enter its second lockdown, the government's scientific advisers have warned.

In newly-released documents, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said the country's coronavirus reproduction rate - or R number - is likely to fall below 1 during the four-week lockdown.

But the experts said that infections will "return to the same rate of increase" as before national restrictions were imposed on 5 November if the country returns to its previous three-tier system.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted the latest lockdown will end on 2 December but it remains unclear what restrictions will be in place over the Christmas period.

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'Would you be able to extend lockdown, PM?'

In its document, SAGE said England's lockdown is "likely to reduce R to less than 1" and the number of hospital admissions and deaths "would be expected to fall until at least the second week of December".

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But it warned that the "longer-term outlook" depends on "policies over the festive period".

"If England returns to the same application of the tiering system in place before 5th November, then transmission will return to the same rate of increase as today," SAGE said in the document dated 4 November.

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If the R value is above 1 then the COVID-19 epidemic continues to grow, but if it is below 1 it shows the outbreak is in retreat.

The tier system in England saw regions placed in three separate tiers classed as "medium", "high" or "very high" depending on their rate of coronavirus infections.

Under the "medium" tier 1 restrictions, areas were told to follow the rule of six if meeting indoors or outdoors and pubs and restaurants were ordered to close at 10pm.

The "high" tier 2 restrictions also forced pubs and restaurants to shut at 10pm but banned households mixing indoors, with the rule of six applying when people met outdoors.

Under the "very high" tier 3 restrictions, no households could mix indoors or outdoors in hospitality venues or private gardens and the rule of six applied in open public spaces such as parks and beaches.

Pubs and bars not serving meals were forced to close and people were urged not to travel in and out of the area.

In its document, SAGE said that initial analysis suggested tier 3 measures in England had a "noticeable impact on transmission, but it is not yet clear whether they have been sufficient to reduce R below 1".

Following England's second lockdown, it was revealed on Friday that the UK's R number has fallen slightly to a maximum of 1.2.

The figure is now between 1.0 and 1.2 - down from between 1.1 and 1.3 last week.

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Experts believe the R value is below one in some places, particularly in parts of Wales and potentially parts of Scotland and the north west of England.

It is hoped that R will drop in more places next week or the week after, as people remain under lockdown restrictions.

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2020-11-13 17:00:30Z
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Cummings' exit offers Boris Johnson a 'fresh start', say Tory MPs - BBC News

Reuters

The departure of Dominic Cummings from Downing Street could give Boris Johnson a "fresh start", say Conservative MPs.

A number of Tory backbenchers have welcomed news the prime minister's chief adviser will step down this year.

It comes after the PM's director of communications, and close ally of Mr Cummings, Lee Cain, resigned.

Ex-minister Theresa Villiers said the pair had been "dismissive" of Tory MPs, and she hoped their replacements would be "more collegiate" with the party.

Mr Cummings confirmed to the BBC's political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, late on Thursday that he would leave No 10 before Christmas.

He said reports that he had threatened to quit in solidarity with Mr Cain had been "invented" - instead pointing to a blog post from January where he wrote he wanted to make himself "largely redundant" by the end of 2020.

• Cummings to leave No 10 role by Christmas
• What led to Cummings' departure?
• Top Johnson aide Lee Cain quits amid infighting at No 10

Mr Cummings and Mr Cain were both key members of the Vote Leave campaign for leaving the EU before entering Downing Street with Mr Johnson.

The confirmation of their exits come during the final stages of trade talks between the UK and the bloc.

But No 10 said it would not affect negotiations and the government's approach remained "unchanged".

The events of the past 48 hours feel like a political explosion, with Dominic Cummings now confirming his departure from Downing Street by the end of the year.

But while it's tempting to see this is as a dramatic and sudden eruption, it has been a longer-term burn.

The prime minister's chief adviser stepped back somewhat from some of the brutal day-to-day politics he had helped create after the election.

He had been spending more time focusing on trying to rewire Whitehall - trying to increase the importance of science and data in government - hoping to be less involved in the moment-by-moment political rush.

But given his profile, and his nature, was that ever a realistic plan?

Read more from Laura here.

Since taking the job at Number 10, Mr Cummings has not been a popular figure with everyone within the governing Conservative Party.

He was known for making disparaging comments about some of Mr Johnson's own MPs, including labelling Brexiteers "useful idiots".

Ms Villiers, who was environment secretary until February, welcomed the upcoming change of personnel.

She told BBC News: "I do feel these changes... are an opportunity for a fresh start, to enable the prime minister to build bridges with some of the backbenches who have become anxious about some of the direction the government has gone over recent months

"There is no doubt that both Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain were pretty dismissive of backbenchers, and on some occasion ministers and secretaries of states as well, and I don't think that was helpful."

The Conservative chair of the liaison committee of senior MPs, Sir Bernard Jenkin, said Mr Cummings' departure was an "opportunity to reset how the government operates and to emphasise some values about what we want to project as a Conservative Party in government".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was time to restore "respect, integrity and trust" between No 10 and Tory MPs, which he said had been "lacking in recent months".

And fellow Tory Sir Roger Gale called the chief adviser's exit as "an opportunity to muck out the stables" and get a new team in.

He called for Mr Cummings to go "immediately", telling BBC News: "People who campaign well are not necessarily people who can run the country well.

"I believe that what the prime minister needs and deserves is a serious heavyweight political adviser behind him, who understands the scene, understands the system, knows where the bodies are buried."

Who is Dominic Cummings?

Reuters

• Born in Durham, Dominic Cummings, 48, went to a state primary school before being privately educated at Durham School. He graduated from Oxford University with a first-class degree in modern history
• A longstanding Eurosceptic, he cut his campaigning teeth as a director of the anti-euro Business for Sterling group and once ran a successful campaign to oppose a regionally elected assembly in north-east England
• In Westminster, he worked for Iain Duncan Smith when he was Conservative Party leader and Michael Gove at the Department for Education
• He 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
• Six months later the pair's "Get Brexit Done" campaign message helped the party win a large majority in the general election
• Mr Cummings became more of a public figure 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

Read our full profile on Dominic Cummings here.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast he was "not particularly surprised" by the announcement, adding that "advisers come and go over a period of time".

Asked if the departure of Mr Cummings and Mr Cain suggested the prime minister was intending to follow a very different path, Mr Shapps said the PM had "always taken advice from a very wide range of people and doesn't always side with the same people at the end of that decision-making process".

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2020-11-13 15:20:00Z
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Police apologise for 'language and tone' used to describe Yorkshire Ripper victims - Sky News

The chief constable of West Yorkshire Police has apologised to Peter Sutcliffe's victims for "the language, tone and terminology used by senior officers at the time". 

"Such language and attitudes may have reflected wider societal attitudes of the day, but it was as wrong then as it is now," said John Robins.

The force - as well as media publications and the attorney general - have been heavily criticised for their attitudes towards some of the Yorkshire Ripper's victims, who were sex workers.

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Sutcliffe's victims and families left behind

Sutcliffe, who died in hospital after reportedly turning down treatment for coronavirus, murdered 13 women across Yorkshire and the North West between 1975 and 1980.

Earlier on Friday, the son of victim Wilma McCann told Sky News that West Yorkshire Police should apologise for the language used to refer to his mother 45 years ago.

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"What can come out of this is for West Yorkshire Police to finally do the right thing and give us a bit of closure we can have and deserve, and that is to apologise for the way they spoke about some of the victims, including my mum, who they said were less than innocent," Richard McCann said.

"When Jayne MacDonald, the 16-year-old girl, was killed it was said by the police that [Sutcliffe has] killed an innocent victim now.

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"My mum and all those other women were completely innocent and deserved to live."

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Son of Sutcliffe victim speaks out

Ms McCann was the first known victim of Sutcliffe and was 28 when she was killed just yards from her Leeds home.

In a statement, Mr Robins offered his "heartfelt apology" to the victims' families and said attitudes in the force had changed since then.

"A huge number of officers worked to identify and bring Peter Sutcliffe to justice and it is a shame that their hard work was overshadowed by the language of senior officers used at the time, the effect of which is still felt today by surviving relatives," he said.

"Thankfully those attitudes are consigned to history and our approach today is wholly victim-focused, putting them at the centre of everything we do."

Retired detective Roger Parnell, who worked on the Ripper inquiry, rejected accusations the force did not care about victims who were sex workers.

"We certainly did, I can assure you we did," he told BBC Radio 5Live.

"These ladies were wives, they were mothers, they were sisters. And the inquiry did not change at the murder of Jayne MacDonald.

"We were all determined from the beginning to catch the perpetrator of all these murders."

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2020-11-13 14:47:41Z
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Yorkshire Ripper killings created 'culture of fear' - BBC News

Alamy

Leeds in the late 1970s and early 1980s was a place of fear and suspicion as the hunt for one of Britain's most prolific killers dominated the city.

Peter Sutcliffe, later dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, killed 13 women and attacked at least eight more between October 1975 and November 1980

Six of the Ripper's victims were attacked in Leeds during a five-year period, and as the killings continued and the manhunt dragged on, every woman became a possible target and every man a potential suspect.

Alamy

Between October 1975 and June 1977 Sutcliffe, who has died aged 74, killed Wilma McCann, 28, Emily Jackson, 42, Irene Richardson, 28 and 16 year-old Jayne McDonald in the Chapeltown area of Leeds - a fifth woman, Patricia Atkinson, had been killed in Bradford.

Ruth Bundey, a solicitor who lived in Chapeltown at the time and who later went on to represent some of the Ripper's victims, said the killings brought fear and suspicion to the city.

Speaking in the 2019 documentary series 'The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story' she said: "[There was] fear in the homes of ordinary people.

"Suspicion, looking at one's neighbours and thinking 'Could it be him?'.

"Anybody who had a car dropping a woman home would wait until you had seen the woman get up to her front door, go in and put the light on. And you wouldn't go away until that had happened."

PA Media

Sutcliffe's victims

• Wilma McCann, 28, Leeds, October 1975
• Emily Jackson, 42, Leeds, January 1976
• Irene Richardson, 28, Leeds, February 1977
• Patricia Atkinson, 32, Bradford, April 1977
• Jayne McDonald, 16, Leeds, June 1977
• Jean Jordan, 21, Manchester, October 1977
• Yvonne Pearson, 22, Bradford, January 1978
• Helen Rytka, 18, Huddersfield, January 1978
• Vera Millward, 41, Manchester, May 1978
• Josephine Whittaker, 19, Halifax, May 1979
• Barbara Leach, 20, Bradford, September 1979
• Marguerite Walls, 47, Leeds, August 1980
• Jacqueline Hill, 20, Leeds, November 1980

Peter McGoldrick, now 63, was studying chemistry at the University of Leeds between 1976 and 1980.

He said that in his first year he was aware of the killings but became more observant in his second year when he moved to the Hyde Park area of Leeds - less than two miles west of Chapeltown.

"I can recall vividly, and certainly in the winter months, there was a lot of concern amongst the female population at the university," he said.

"The nights were getting short and it was a particularly dark walk from the university across Woodhouse Moor [towards Hyde Park].

"I remember meeting girls that I did not know asking me if I would walk with them across the park until they got to the other side.

"That was a common thing across the student population, you would not hesitate to offer someone an escort."

Getty/Mirrorpix

Police wrongly believed to begin with the murders were a result of the killer's hatred of prostitution as they were centred around the city's notorious red light district.

But as the killings continued and spread across West Yorkshire and into Manchester the background of his victims seemed no longer to be the key.

In April 1979 Josephine Whitaker, a 19-year-old building society clerk, was found dead on Savile Park Moor in Halifax - she was the Ripper's 10th victim.

'Mass hysteria'

Her murder is seen by some as a tipping point, when many more women began to fear for their lives.

"Prior to the Josephine Whittaker murder people had felt that he was only targeting women that were prostitutes or sex workers," said former Ripper Squad detective Bob Bridgestock.

"But, after her death that changed, nobody was safe, no female was safe. It created mass hysteria.

"People used to say they wouldn't go out any more until he was caught, they daren't. He had created a culture of fear."

Diana Muir was a junior reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post in 1978 - her first job after graduating.

"People were scared, there's no doubt about it," she said.

"The biggest jolt to that was when he killed [Josephine Whittaker].

"Chapeltown was notorious, it was the red light district for Leeds at that time and I suppose it was thought if you were in that area you were taking a risk, but it was quite clear after the attack in Halifax that it was nothing to do with that."

PA

The Ripper killings also brought the finger of suspicion to Leeds and the fear the killer was living among them.

"Everybody wanted him caught," recalled Mr Bridgestock.

"People were saying look at your brother, your father, your uncle is this the person that might be the Ripper?"

Mr Goldrick said one of his housemates had been interviewed by police after his car was identified as one of thousands with the same tyre markings linked to a track found at one of the murder scenes.

Mrs Muir said a colleague was taken in due to a resemblance to a police drawing of the potential suspect.

Over the course of five years West Yorkshire Police interviewed thousands of men while the terror and suspicion lingered over Leeds.

Sutcliffe himself was interviewed nine times during the course of the huge investigation but continued to avoid arrest and was able to carry on with his killing.

The Ripper incident room at Millgarth police station used a card index system which was overwhelmed with information and not properly cross-referenced, leading to evidence against Sutcliffe getting lost in the system.

On one occasion Sutcliffe was interviewed by officers who showed him a picture of the Ripper's bootprint near a body but they failed to notice that Sutcliffe was wearing the exact same pair of boots.

Another time when a £5 note was found in the pocket of one his victims Jean Jordan, in Manchester in 1977, police again failed to connect Sutcliffe.

The note was traced to one of six companies, including Clark Transport, which employed Sutcliffe as a lorry driver.

He was interviewed but was given an alibi by his wife and mother, which was accepted.

The worst blunder came in 1979 when John Humble tricked police into believing the serial killer was a man dubbed Wearside Jack because of his gruff Sunderland accent.

Sutcliffe was eventually caught in January 1981 when he was stopped by officers in Sheffield with a prostitute in his brown Rover car and handed over to the Ripper squad.

Alamy

He was charged three days later and when he appeared at Dewsbury Magistrates' Court the fear that had held sway over Leeds and the north of England erupted.

On the day of his court appearance hundreds of people lined the streets shouting, jeering and jostling for a chance to see the man who had cast his shadow over their lives for so long.

Less than six months later Sutcliffe had been convicted of 13 counts of murder and attempting to murder seven more. He was given 20 life sentences.

With his arrest and conviction the grim spectre of fear which had hung over Leeds for so long was lifted, leaving its residents safe to walk the streets once more and able to sleep a little easier.

Mrs Muir, who left the local newspaper in 1988 but still lives in the city, said: "Leeds is unrecognisable. It's almost like if you think back to that time the city was in black and white.

"There are many young people who live here now who do not really know the story, it's gone and Leeds has reinvented itself."

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2020-11-13 13:47:00Z
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