Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s influential and controversial chief adviser, has left his job with immediate effect, according to multiple reports, after being seen leaving No 10 carrying a box.
Downing Street gave no immediate confirmation, but it appeared that both Cummings and Lee Cain, the No 10 communications chief and a key ally, would leave their roles with immediate effect.
Cain’s departure was formally announced on Wednesday, but he was to have worked until Christmas. The same was true of Cummings, although there had been no official word about why he was leaving.
But on Friday afternoon Cummings was photographed leaving the front door of No 10 carrying a box, as if he had cleared his desk.
Cummings, like Cain a former key member of the Vote Leave campaign, shot to national notoriety in May after it emerged he had seemingly broken lockdown restrictions to travel from London to Durham with his family, and go on a day trip while there.
He has proved increasingly unpopular with Tory MPs, who have demanded that his departure is used as a chance to revamp the Downing Street operation.