The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson dumped his chief adviser Dominic Cummings on Nov. 13, the person most responsible for the Brexit win and for the science and infrastructure orientation (at least at first) in the Johnson administration. Cummings’ ally Lee Cain was also forced to leave. They were supposed to leave in the new year, but things obviously changed. Sir Edward Lister, Johnson’s chief strategic adviser, will become interim chief of staff until there is a permanent appointment, the prime minister’s office said, according to the Guardian. Cummings and Cain will continue to work for 10 Downing Street until mid-December, working from home for six weeks.
Cummings’ dismissal is said to have followed his attempt to name his friend Lee Cain to the position of chief of staff to the Prime Minister, but Johnson’s fiancée, Carrie Symonds, is said to have blocked the attempt.
Carrie Symonds is more than just Johnson’s paramour. She is a media “expert.” Her father, Mathew Symonds, was the co-founder of the Independent and worked as a financial journalist for The Economist and is now executive director of the Larry Ellison Foundation. Ellison is the co-founder, the executive chairman, and chief technology officer of Oracle Corporation and the 11th richest man in the world.
Carrie Symonds at one time was chief media adviser for the Conservative Party until she became a senior adviser of the Washington-based international mega-environmentalist Oceana Foundation, created by the Rockefeller Foundation, and is behind the anti-plastics campaign among other things.
The Johnson administration is facing a deadline for a deal with the EU on Brexit at the end of the year. There is still far to go if they are to avoid a “no deal” break.
