UK Prime Minister's Senior Adviser To Resign By Year's End - Minister

UK Prime Minister's Senior Adviser to Resign by Year's End - Minister

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's senior adviser Dominic Cummings will step down from his position by year's end, amid rumors of an internal power struggle within Johnson's closest circle, Transport minister Grant Shapps confirmed on Friday

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2020) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's senior adviser Dominic Cummings will step down from his position by year's end, amid rumors of an internal power struggle within Johnson's closest circle, Transport minister Grant Shapps confirmed on Friday.

"As he wrote right at the beginning of the year in his own words, he planned to make himself largely redundant this year with the big thing that he worked on, of course, which was Brexit, coming to an end at the end of the transition period, which is 31 December," Shapps told Sky news broadcaster.

The minister also tried to downplay the importance of the top adviser leaving his position by stating that what is really important now is to stay focused on the big issues of defeating the COVID-19, not on "who's in and who's out of Downing Street (the Prime Minister's official residence)."

Speculations about Cummings' resignation mounted after Johnson's director of Communications, Lee Cain, announced on Wednesday night that he will be resigning from his position within a month, despite being offered a new role as chief of staff to the prime minister.

The senior adviser told BBC on Thursday that rumors about his resignation were "invented", but immediately added that back in January, he had written in his blog about his desire of making himself "largely redundant" by the end of 2020.

Cummings, who ran the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign in the EU referendum, came under fire in May for traveling with his family to his hometown in Durham amid the COVID-19 lockdown, but despite pressures from the public and lawmakers, Johnson stood by his top adviser and did not ask him to step down.