Boris Johnson Is Told to Rein In Top Aide After Racism Row
(Bloomberg) --
Boris Johnson was under pressure from colleagues in the U.K.‘s ruling Conservative Party to discipline his most senior adviser as an escalating dispute over allegations of racism threatened to engulf his government.
Senior Tories, including current and former ministers, spoke out after Andrew Sabisky -- an official hired to work in the prime minister’s office -- quit over his claims that black Americans are intellectually inferior to their white compatriots.
The blame for recruiting Sabisky fell on Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s chief adviser, who launched a high-profile drive to attract “weirdos and misfits” to join his effort to revolutionize the way British government works. It is the latest in a series of controversies involving Cummings since he went to work with Johnson last year.
Last week, Cummings was blamed for a plan to strip the Treasury of its independence over economic policy, which prompted Sajid Javid to resign as chancellor of the exchequer after a disagreement with Johnson. The senior adviser, who masterminded the pro-Brexit campaign before the 2016 referendum, had earlier clashed with Javid and others in government over his unorthodox methods and confrontational approach.
‘Unorthodox Way’
The furor comes at a critical time for Johnson’s government, as it prepares to open negotiations with the European Union on a future trading agreement, and it threatens to overshadow the prime minister’s domestic agenda.
“It’s incumbent upon the prime minister to keep Dominic Cummings on a tight rein,” former minister Caroline Nokes said in an interview. “When an adviser becomes a story, then clearly there’s a problem.”
Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said Johnson’s office must “ensure this doesn’t happen again” and needs to review the process for vetting potential recruits. Problems arise when “you get people who slip through the net, who are recruited in perhaps an unorthodox way,“ Kwarteng told Sky News. “I think the vetting will be much more severe.“
Boris Johnson’s Top Aide Seeks ‘Weirdos’ to Overhaul Government
Speaking privately, another minister accused Cummings of turning the government into a circus and described him as a corrosive influence. The minister said Johnson’s team must ensure recruits are far more vigorously vetted, and added that it would be best if Cummings left the government.
Johnson’s government won a large majority in December’s general election, putting him in a powerful position to shape the country and drive his reforming agenda through Parliament. Cummings said he wants to shake up the way the government works by recruiting “unusual” people with “different skills and backgrounds.”
In a 3,000-word blog post last month, Cummings said there is “little need to worry about short-term unpopularity” given the size of Johnson’s majority. It seems some of his Conservative colleagues in Parliament and in government disagree.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Stuart Biggs
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