Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist. From 2007 to 2014 he was a special adviser to the then Education Secretary, Michael Gove. In 2015–16 he was the campaign director of Vote Leave, an organisation opposed to continued UK membership of the European Union and which took an active part in the 2016 referendum campaign on the subject. In July 2019 the new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, appointed him to the role of special adviser to the government.
Early life
Cummings was born in Durham on 25 November 1971, the son of an oil rig project manager and a special needs teacher.[1][2] After attending state primary school, he was educated at Durham School and Exeter College, Oxford, graduating in 1994 with a First in Ancient and Modern History.[1][3][2]
After university, Cummings moved to post-Soviet Russia from 1994 to 1997, working on various projects. In one Russian venture, he worked for a group attempting to set up an airline connecting Samara in southern Russia to Vienna; however, the venture fell foul of the KGB, and was abandoned after only one flight.[1]
Cummings has claimed to have never been a member of a political party[4].
Political career
1999 to 2014
From 1999 to 2002, Cummings was campaign director at Business for Sterling, the campaign against the UK joining the Euro.[1][3] He then became Director of Strategy for Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith for 8 months in 2002, aiming to modernise the Conservative Party (of which he was not a member); however he soon left in frustration at the introduction of what he saw as half-measures, labelling Duncan Smith "incompetent".[5][6] With James Frayne he founded the New Frontiers Foundation think-tank as its director; it launched in December 2003 and closed in March 2005.[7] Cummings was described as a "key figure" in the successful campaign against a North-East Regional Assembly in 2004,[8] after which he moved to his father's farm in County Durham.[3]
Cummings worked for Conservative politician Michael Gove from 2007 to January 2014, first in opposition and then, after the 2010 general election, as a special adviser (Spad) in the Department of Education . He was Gove's chief of staff,[5] an appointment blocked by Andy Coulson until his own resignation.[9][10] In this capacity, Cummings wrote an essay titled: "Some thoughts on education and political priorities",[11] about transforming Britain into a "meritocratic technopolis";[5] the essay was described by Guardian journalist Patrick Wintour as "either mad, bad or brilliant – and probably a bit of all three".[10][12]
At the DfE Cummings became known for his blunt style and "not suffering fools gladly";[3][5] he railed against the "blob", the informal alliance of senior civil servants and teachers who, in Cummings's opinion, sought to frustrate his attempts at reform.[8] Cummings was also outspoken regarding other senior politicians, describing Nick Clegg's proposals on free school meals as "Dreamed up on the back of a cigarette packet",[13] and David Davis as "thick as mince" and "lazy as a toad".[8] Patrick Wintour described the Cummings-Gove working relationship: "Gove, polite to a fault, would often feign ignorance of his adviser’s methods, but knew full well the dark arts that Cummings deployed to get his master’s way".[13] In 2014, Prime Minister David Cameron criticised Cummings as a "career psychopath",[14] although the two had never met.[13]
In 2014, Cummings left his job as a Spad and noted that he might have a go at opening a free school.[9] He had previously worked for the New Schools Network charity that advises free schools, as a volunteer from June 2009 and then as a paid freelancer from July to December 2010.[9][15]
Campaign to leave the European Union (2016–2019)
See also: 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum
Cummings became campaign director of Vote Leave upon the creation of the organisation in October 2015.[12] He is credited with having created the Vote Leave slogan, "Take back control", and with being the leading strategist of the campaign.[16][17] His campaign strategy was summarised as: "Do talk about immigration";[18][19] "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". Board member of Vote Leave Bernard Jenkin tried to remove Cummings and merge Vote Leave with the other campaign, Leave.EU.[20] Cummings and Vote Leave CEO Matthew Elliott left the board in February 2016 following reported infighting.[21] The June 2016 referendum resulted in a 51.9% vote to "leave" the European Union. Cummings was praised alongside Elliott as being one of the masterminds of the campaign.[22] He was named as one of "Debrett's 500 2016" people of influence.[23]
In March 2019, the Commons Select Committee of Privileges recommended the House issue an admonishment for alleged contempt of Parliament after Cummings failed to appear before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into claims of false news during the referendum campaign.[24] The resolution admonishing him was passed by resolution of the House of Commons on 2 April 2019.[25]
Johnson ministry (2019–present)
On 24 July 2019, Cummings was appointed as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[26]
On his appointment, The Guardian noted that at a conference in 2017 Cummings had argued that: "People think, and by the way I think most people are right: 'The Tory party is run by people who basically don't care about people like me'"; and that "Tory MPs largely do not care about these poorer people. They don't care about the NHS. And the public has kind of cottoned on to that".[27]
The Daily Telegraph reported on Cummings's past rivalry with Nigel Farage from the 2016 referendum campaign, and quoted Farage as saying that: "He has never liked me. He can't stand the ERG. I can't see him coming to any accommodation with anyone. He has huge personal enmity with the true believers in Brexit".[28]
Cummings was accused of hypocrisy when, not long after his appointment, it was revealed that a farm that he co-owns had received €250,000 (£235,000) in EU farming subsidies. Cummings had previously described such subsidies as "absurd", complaining that some of them were handed out to "very rich landowners to do stupid things".[29]
On 31st August 2019 The Guardian reported that Cummings had fired one of Chancellor Sajid Javid's aides Sonia Khan without Javid's permission and without informing him. Allegedly, "Having summoned her to No 10 on Thursday evening to question her, Cummings took her two phones, one used for private calls and one for work, and fired her after seeing she had talked to an ex-aide to Philip Hammond last week. Cummings then went outside No 10 and asked an armed officer to enter the building and escort Khan off the premises." [30]
Political views
In January 2016, Cummings said that "Extremists are on the rise in Europe and are being fuelled unfortunately by the Euro project and by the centralisation of power in Brussels. It it is increasingly important that Britain offers an example of civilised, democratic, liberal self-government."[31]
At the Nudgestock event in 2017, Cummings said: "For me ... the worst-case scenario for Europe is a return to 1930s-style protectionism and extremism. And to me the EU project, the Eurozone project, are driving the growth of extremism. The single most important reason, really, for why I wanted to get out of the EU is I think that it will drain the poison of a lot of political debates ... UKIP and Nigel Farage would be finished. Once there’s democratic control of immigration policy, immigration will go back to being a second- or third-order issue.
Early life
Cummings was born in Durham on 25 November 1971, the son of an oil rig project manager and a special needs teacher.[1][2] After attending state primary school, he was educated at Durham School and Exeter College, Oxford, graduating in 1994 with a First in Ancient and Modern History.[1][3][2]
After university, Cummings moved to post-Soviet Russia from 1994 to 1997, working on various projects. In one Russian venture, he worked for a group attempting to set up an airline connecting Samara in southern Russia to Vienna; however, the venture fell foul of the KGB, and was abandoned after only one flight.[1]
Cummings has claimed to have never been a member of a political party[4].
Political career
1999 to 2014
From 1999 to 2002, Cummings was campaign director at Business for Sterling, the campaign against the UK joining the Euro.[1][3] He then became Director of Strategy for Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith for 8 months in 2002, aiming to modernise the Conservative Party (of which he was not a member); however he soon left in frustration at the introduction of what he saw as half-measures, labelling Duncan Smith "incompetent".[5][6] With James Frayne he founded the New Frontiers Foundation think-tank as its director; it launched in December 2003 and closed in March 2005.[7] Cummings was described as a "key figure" in the successful campaign against a North-East Regional Assembly in 2004,[8] after which he moved to his father's farm in County Durham.[3]
Cummings worked for Conservative politician Michael Gove from 2007 to January 2014, first in opposition and then, after the 2010 general election, as a special adviser (Spad) in the Department of Education . He was Gove's chief of staff,[5] an appointment blocked by Andy Coulson until his own resignation.[9][10] In this capacity, Cummings wrote an essay titled: "Some thoughts on education and political priorities",[11] about transforming Britain into a "meritocratic technopolis";[5] the essay was described by Guardian journalist Patrick Wintour as "either mad, bad or brilliant – and probably a bit of all three".[10][12]
At the DfE Cummings became known for his blunt style and "not suffering fools gladly";[3][5] he railed against the "blob", the informal alliance of senior civil servants and teachers who, in Cummings's opinion, sought to frustrate his attempts at reform.[8] Cummings was also outspoken regarding other senior politicians, describing Nick Clegg's proposals on free school meals as "Dreamed up on the back of a cigarette packet",[13] and David Davis as "thick as mince" and "lazy as a toad".[8] Patrick Wintour described the Cummings-Gove working relationship: "Gove, polite to a fault, would often feign ignorance of his adviser’s methods, but knew full well the dark arts that Cummings deployed to get his master’s way".[13] In 2014, Prime Minister David Cameron criticised Cummings as a "career psychopath",[14] although the two had never met.[13]
In 2014, Cummings left his job as a Spad and noted that he might have a go at opening a free school.[9] He had previously worked for the New Schools Network charity that advises free schools, as a volunteer from June 2009 and then as a paid freelancer from July to December 2010.[9][15]
Campaign to leave the European Union (2016–2019)
See also: 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum
Cummings became campaign director of Vote Leave upon the creation of the organisation in October 2015.[12] He is credited with having created the Vote Leave slogan, "Take back control", and with being the leading strategist of the campaign.[16][17] His campaign strategy was summarised as: "Do talk about immigration";[18][19] "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". Board member of Vote Leave Bernard Jenkin tried to remove Cummings and merge Vote Leave with the other campaign, Leave.EU.[20] Cummings and Vote Leave CEO Matthew Elliott left the board in February 2016 following reported infighting.[21] The June 2016 referendum resulted in a 51.9% vote to "leave" the European Union. Cummings was praised alongside Elliott as being one of the masterminds of the campaign.[22] He was named as one of "Debrett's 500 2016" people of influence.[23]
In March 2019, the Commons Select Committee of Privileges recommended the House issue an admonishment for alleged contempt of Parliament after Cummings failed to appear before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into claims of false news during the referendum campaign.[24] The resolution admonishing him was passed by resolution of the House of Commons on 2 April 2019.[25]
Johnson ministry (2019–present)
On 24 July 2019, Cummings was appointed as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[26]
On his appointment, The Guardian noted that at a conference in 2017 Cummings had argued that: "People think, and by the way I think most people are right: 'The Tory party is run by people who basically don't care about people like me'"; and that "Tory MPs largely do not care about these poorer people. They don't care about the NHS. And the public has kind of cottoned on to that".[27]
The Daily Telegraph reported on Cummings's past rivalry with Nigel Farage from the 2016 referendum campaign, and quoted Farage as saying that: "He has never liked me. He can't stand the ERG. I can't see him coming to any accommodation with anyone. He has huge personal enmity with the true believers in Brexit".[28]
Cummings was accused of hypocrisy when, not long after his appointment, it was revealed that a farm that he co-owns had received €250,000 (£235,000) in EU farming subsidies. Cummings had previously described such subsidies as "absurd", complaining that some of them were handed out to "very rich landowners to do stupid things".[29]
On 31st August 2019 The Guardian reported that Cummings had fired one of Chancellor Sajid Javid's aides Sonia Khan without Javid's permission and without informing him. Allegedly, "Having summoned her to No 10 on Thursday evening to question her, Cummings took her two phones, one used for private calls and one for work, and fired her after seeing she had talked to an ex-aide to Philip Hammond last week. Cummings then went outside No 10 and asked an armed officer to enter the building and escort Khan off the premises." [30]
Political views
In January 2016, Cummings said that "Extremists are on the rise in Europe and are being fuelled unfortunately by the Euro project and by the centralisation of power in Brussels. It it is increasingly important that Britain offers an example of civilised, democratic, liberal self-government."[31]
At the Nudgestock event in 2017, Cummings said: "For me ... the worst-case scenario for Europe is a return to 1930s-style protectionism and extremism. And to me the EU project, the Eurozone project, are driving the growth of extremism. The single most important reason, really, for why I wanted to get out of the EU is I think that it will drain the poison of a lot of political debates ... UKIP and Nigel Farage would be finished. Once there’s democratic control of immigration policy, immigration will go back to being a second- or third-order issue.
