By Jess Jones
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reportedly hoped to strike a ‘secret deal’ to help win the next election with Boris Johnson’s ex-top advisor, Dominic Cummings.
“He wanted a secret deal in which I delivered the election and he promised to take government seriously after the election,” Cummings told the Sunday Times.
“But I’d rather the Tories lose than continue in office without prioritising what’s important and the voters.
“The post-2016 Tories are summed up by the fact that Sunak, like Johnson, would rather lose than take government seriously,” he added.
The former Vote Leave campaign director, instrumental in the Tories’ 2019 victory, said that he would return to the fold under the condition that Sunak pledged to adopt a more serious approach post-election.
Cummings wanted him to prioritise critical national assets such as nuclear infrastructure, defence procurement, pandemic preparedness and artificial intelligence.
He also proposed leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
No 10 has not denied Cummings’ account but rejected that any job offer was made.
“It was a broad discussion about politics and campaigning, no job was offered,” a Downing Street source told the Sunday Times.
Meetings between the two occurred in London last December and later over dinner in North Yorkshire, deliberately kept confidential from some of Sunak’s closest confidants.
