Disheveled allure, stained shirt and sweatshirt thrown over the shoulders: the disregard for male dress codes has become a trademark of Dominic Cummings. In a way, he, the Prime Minister’s special adviser to the UK’s Boris Johnson, expressed his disregard for Westminster’s conventions and “elite”. An elite in which this 48-year-old man still participates, familiar with the antechambers of British power. He is married to one of the officials of the Spectator, the conservative magazine of which Mr. Johnson was editor-in-chief in the early 2000s.
The figure of "Special adviser" ("SpAd") is a classic of British power, but Dominic Cummings has taken an unprecedented place in Downing Street – a Prime Minister bis, some critics even worry. He is an essential cog in the machinery of government, architect of Boris Johnson's Brexit strategy in the fall of 2019, essential during the general elections of December (won hands down by the Conservatives), essential in the response of the British government to the Covid-19 crisis.
Inventor of the famous "Take back control"
Arrogant but brilliant, brutal but visionary, he was popularized by the film The Uncivil War, in 2019. Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays him, plays a nerd, obsessed with artificial intelligence and opinion polls. Director of the "Leave" campaign (in favor of leaving the European Union), "Dom" is the inventor of the famous "Take back control" (“Take back control”), a formidably effective slogan in favor of Brexit.
Native of Durham (a historic city in the north-east of England), he studied history at Oxford, made a mysterious career start in Russia, at the beginning of the 1990s (he worked in particular on the project of a company airline which quickly went bankrupt). He launched his first political campaign by building arguments against the adoption of the euro by the United Kingdom in the late 1990s.
In the early 2000s, he was spotted by curator Michael Gove, of whom he became chief of staff, when the latter was education Minister by David Cameron. Very close to the Prime Minister at the time, Mr. Gove betrayed him first to embark on the Brexit campaign, then after the referendum won by the Brexiters in June 2016, he released Boris Johnson, barring his Downing Street Road – benefiting Theresa May's time. Dominic Cummings disappears, writes feverish blog posts on the failings of the British senior civil service or the need to turn to a knowledge economy following Brexit.
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