Why Cummings Isn’t Yet Goings

Out came the second revelation. But there was no response from alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Grant “Spiv” Shapps shuffled uncomfortably before the inquisition of Sophy Ridge; he was then grilled by Andrew Marr until very tender indeed. Then came the possibility of a third revelation including news of a third lockdown-busting jaunt to Durham. Only then was there some movement.

Chief Downing Street polecat Dominic Cummings went from his London home to Downing Street, where he has remained since. Thoughts were that Bozo The Clown would now see sense, listen to all those back benchers whose postbags and inboxes have filled up with the adverse comments of irate constituents, realise that with Polecat Dom still on board he couldn’t credibly ask the public to make more sacrifices, and sack the SOB.

But here we are in mid-afternoon, a large food delivery has just arrived at No10, and whatever is happening in there, it appears that the penny is yet to drop, even as the list of Tory MPs calling for Dom to go becomes longer. Thus far, Steve Baker, Simon Hoare, Damian Collins, Sir Roger Gale, Sir Peter Bone, Caroline Nokes, Craig Whittaker, Robert Syms, William Wragg, Julian Knight and Rob Halfon have joined that queue.

But, as the hustings van which has been parked in the street outside Cummings’ north London house has shown in the video it has been playing, Polecat Dom doesn’t care. And he doesn’t care who knows he doesn’t care. And he doesn’t care what the media thinks, because he doesn’t care about them either. What he did might look bad, but he thinks he did the right thing. As to what anyone else thinks, you guessed it, he doesn’t care.

So while more and more people circulate that incriminating Government advert - “IF ONE PERSON BREAKS THE RULES, WE WILL ALL SUFFER” - and still anonymous ministers and Tory back benchers tell the likes of Robert Peston “it is ‘only a matter of time’ until the prime minister asks him to go”, Cummings digs in his heels. Because he doesn’t care. If it causes constituents to turn against their MPs, he doesn’t care. It’s not his problem.

Worse for Bozo, Dom doesn’t care if the ever-deepening crisis extends to engulf his boss. Had he just resigned at news of the first revelation of lockdown-busting (and said sorry, something else he doesn’t care about), the follow-up questions would not have kept on coming. Now they are, with Peter Oborne asking “This political crisis is no longer about the wretched Cummings. It is about Johnson and, in particular, why the prime minister hasn't sacked him. Is it because he knew Cummings was going to Durham, gave the green light, and therefore authorised a breach of the lockdown rules?” Questions like that one.

Nick Davies, who prised open the can of worms that was the phone hacking scandal, reckoned there could be something in this. “Peter Oborne may well be right, that the underlying question about Cummings is whether the prime minister - or other ministers - knew that their most senior adviser was breaking their own legally-enforceable rules”.

See what happens? The longer the crisis continues, the more probing, the potentially more damaging the questions. The longer the list of MPs who echo Caroline Nokes telling “My inbox is rammed with very angry constituents and I do not blame them”.

Dominic Cummings doesn’t care. And that could turn out to be his most damaging legacy.

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