Kemi Badenoch will be gone as Tory leader within a year – and there are plots already under way to oust her, Dominic Cummings has said.
The former Number 10 aide also claimed the Conservative Party “might be dead”.
His remarks 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, said Nigel Farage could “definitely” become the next prime minister.
On Ms Badenoch, who won the Tory leadership race last November, Mr Cummings said: “Kemi is going to go, probably this year.
“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.”
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0:58
Cummings on ‘getting rid’ of Johnson
In a damning indictment of the party he served, he said: “It’s quite possible the Tories have just, kind of, crossed the event horizon and actually aren’t salvageable.
“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.”
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Mr Cummings revealed he has held meetings with Mr Farage and advised him on how to go from “one man and an iPhone” to entering Downing Street.
Asked if the Reform UK leader 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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2:28
Farage ‘could definitely’ be PM
‘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.”
Image: Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, pictured in Downing Street in 2019. Pic: PA
However, the ex-Downing Street aide 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,” he said.
“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.”
Mr Cummings left his Downing Street role in November 2020 after attracting controversy during the coronavirus lockdown when he drove to Barnard Castle in County Durham and claimed he was testing his eyesight.
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Gaza and transatlantic trade are set to dominate talks between Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer when the pair meet in Scotland on Monday.
Downing Street said the prime minister would discuss “what more can be done to secure the ceasefire [in the Middle East] urgently”, during the meeting at the president’s Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire.
Talks in Qatar over a ceasefire ended on Thursday after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams.
Mr Trump blamed Hamas for the collapse of negotiations as he left the US for Scotland, saying the militant group “didn’t want to make a deal… they want to die”.
Sir Keir has tried to forge close personal ties with the president, frequently praising his actions on the world stage despite clear foreign policy differences between the US and UK.
The two leaders are expected to discuss this agreement when they meet, with the prime minister likely to press the president for a lowering of outstanding tariffs on imports such as steel.
Prior to the visit, the White House said the talks would allow them to “refine the historic US-UK trade deal”.
Extracting promises from the president on the Middle East may be harder though.
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1:30
Should aid be dropped into Gaza?
Despite some reports that Mr Trump is growing frustrated with Israel, there is a clear difference in tone between the US and its Western allies.
As he did over the Ukraine war, Sir Keir will have to walk a diplomatic line between the UK’s European allies and the White House.
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0:45
Trump: ‘It doesn’t matter what Macron says’
The UK, French and German leaders spoke over the weekend and agreed to work together on the “next phase” in Gaza that would see transitional governance and security arrangements put in place, alongside the large-scale delivery of aid.
Under pressure from members of his own party and cabinet to follow France and signal formal recognition of Palestine, Sir Keir has gradually become more critical of Israel in recent months.
On Friday, the prime minister said “the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible”.
Government sources say UK recognition is a matter of “when, not if”, however, it’s thought Downing Street wants to ensure any announcement is made at a time when it can have the greatest diplomatic impact.
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1:19
Baby Zainab starved to death in Gaza
Cabinet ministers will be convened in the coming days, during the summer recess, to discuss the situation in Gaza.
The UK has also been working with Jordan to air drop supplies, after Israel said it would allow foreign countries to provide aid to the territory.
Downing Street says Ukraine will also likely be discussed in the meeting with both men reflecting on what can be done to force Russia back to the negotiating table.
After the meeting at Turnberry, the prime minister will travel with the president to Aberdeen for a private engagement.
Mr Trump is also expected to meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney while in the country.
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