‘Nigel Farage could definitely become PM – if he listens to me,’ Dominic Cummings says

Published

7 months ago

May 28, 2025

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Nigel Farage could “definitely” become prime minister at the next general election, Dominic Cummings has said.

The former Number 10 aide has advised the Reform UK leader on how to go from “one man and an iPhone” to entering Downing Street.

Listen to the full interview at 5pm on the Sky News Daily podcast – tap here to follow

The revelation came in a wide-ranging interview with Sky News, in which the controversial figure, who served as Boris Johnson’s chief adviser from 2019 to 2020, revealed details of a meeting between himself and Mr Farage.

Asked if Mr Farage could be prime minister, he said: “It could definitely happen now, yeah, because the old system’s just so completely broken.

“If he does what I’m suggesting, and actually sets out a path for how Reform is going to change, how Reform is going to bring in people, how it’s structurally going to alter, what it’s going to build, how it is going to do policy, how it can recruit MPs, etc.

“If he does that, then there’ll be a huge surge of interest and support into the whole thing.”

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‘One man and an iPhone’

He added: “Reform has been a one-man band. It’s been Nigel and an iPhone.

“They can win 50, 100, 150 seats with Reform as Nigel and an iPhone.

“But they can’t win an overall general election and have a plan for government and have a serious team able to take over in Downing Street and govern and control Whitehall with one man and an iPhone.”

However, Mr Cummings was also scathing about Mr Farage’s personal appeal, saying it was his party, not him, that had become an outlet for anti-establishment feeling.

“It’s not exactly correlated with what people think about Nigel himself.

“Reform is a vehicle for people to say: ‘We despise you, Westminster. We hate both the old parties, we hate Whitehall, we hate the old media, we hate the whole f***ing lot of you.’

“And Farage going up in the polls is the expression of that core feeling.”

Badenoch ‘probably going to go this year’

The ex-Downing Street aide was also damning about the Conservative Party, declaring it might be “dead”.

“It’s quite possible the Tories have just, kind of, crossed the event horizon and actually aren’t salvageable,” he said.

“Like, everyone sort of assumes that because they’ve always been around, then somehow there must be at least one last chance for them to turn things around, but it’s possible that chance is in their past and doesn’t exist.

“It might be dead.”

He also predicted the party’s current leader, Kemi Badenoch, would be ousted before the end of the year and claimed plots to remove her are already under way.

“Kemi is going to go probably this year,” he said.

“There’s already people who are organising to get rid of her, and I think that that will work. If it doesn’t work this year, it will definitely happen after next May.

“She’s a goner, so there’s going to be a big transition there”.

Politics

SEC lawsuit puts Shima Capital’s future in question as wind-down message surfaces

Published

2 hours ago

December 17, 2025

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SEC lawsuit puts Shima Capital’s future in question as wind-down message surfaces

Screenshots of an internal email outlining plans to wind down Shima Capital have surfaced online, days after the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued the crypto venture firm and its founder over allegations of investor fraud.

On Nov. 25, the SEC charged Shima Capital Management LLC and its founder, Yida Gao, with making false and misleading statements while raising almost $170 million from investors, the agency announced on Dec. 3.

The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleged that Gao inflated his investment track record in marketing materials used to raise capital for Shima Capital Fund I between 2021 and 2023.

According to the SEC, Gao claimed one prior investment had delivered a 90x return, when the actual return was closer to 2.8x. The regulator also alleged that when discrepancies in the pitch deck were about to be reported publicly, Gao told investors the issues were the result of clerical errors.

SEC alleges $1.9 million undisclosed gain

Separately, the SEC claimed that Gao raised about $11.9 million through a special purpose vehicle tied to BitClout tokens, telling investors that they would be protected by discounted token purchases. While Gao did acquire tokens at a discount, the SEC said he sold them to the SPV at a higher price without disclosing that he personally retained about $1.9 million in profits.

In a Wednesday post on X, crypto journalist Kate Irwin shared screenshots of an email allegedly sent by Gao to portfolio founders. In the screenshots, Gao purportedly said he would step down as managing director of Shima Capital and that the fund would undergo an “orderly wind-down.”

*Gao’s alleged email to portfolio companies. Source:* *Kate Irwin*

The screenshots purportedly show Gao stating that the SEC and Department of Justice actions are related to his personal conduct, not that of Shima Capital’s portfolio companies, and claiming that no fines have been imposed on the company.

The screenshots also show that independent advisers from FTI Consulting and FTI Capital Management would oversee the wind-down process and monetization of investments, while Shima’s finance team would remain in place. Gao allegedly said he would remain involved with portfolio support “as permitted,” but without management control.

Cointelegraph could not independently verify the email. We reached out to Shima Capital and some of the fund’s portfolio companies for confirmation, but had not received responses at the time of publication.

Shima Capital launched with $200 million debut fund

In 2022, Shima Capital announced the launch of its first venture fund, Shima Capital Fund I, raising $200 million to back early-stage blockchain startups. Founded in 2021 by Gao, the firm said the fund received backing from a range of prominent investors, including Dragonfly Capital, Animoca Brands, OKX Blockdream Capital, Republic and Andrew Yang.