Boris Johnson faces mounting requests to launch an ethics inquiry into a top aide who dramatically fired a young adviser to the Chancellor.
Dominic Cummings faces a turbulent backlash over his removal of 27-year-old Treasury aide Sonia Khan.
The special advisor, who before worked for pro-EU Philip Hammond, was escorted out of 10 Downing Street by armed police officers after she was accused of talking to critics of the Prime Minister.
Now Tory and Labour MPs, along with a former Scotland Yard officer are asking for a formal inquiry by Whitehall’s Director-General for Propriety and Ethics Helen MacNamara. However, a Downing Street spokeswoman stated that no investigation was underway.
But according to the Sunday Times, Helen MacNamara has already spoken to Ms Khan about the incident and a probe could yet be launched and Labour MP Stephen Doughty has written to Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, Helen MacNamara and the Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick alleging serious and legitimate concerns over whether Dominic Cummings broke the Code of Conduct for special advisors.
The code states special advisors must not ask civil servants to do anything inconsistent with their obligations or to use any power over civil service management except when it comes to another special advisor.
Tory MP Dominic Grieve further asked the Cabinet Office to initiate a formal inquiry, stating that it was wrong of the police to get involved.
Former Vote Leave director Dominic Cummings, who was found in contempt of Parliament, is ill-famed for his brash tactics and was accused of telling critics they could “f*** off”.
The dispute intensified after Scotland Yard stated it was standard practice for an officer on the door of No 10 to escort Ms Khan out when a visitor doesn’t have a pass, yet other visitors to No 10 are not escorted by armed police and government advisers should not misuse their authority by drawing the police into heavy-handed political stunts and this needs to be reviewed by the cabinet secretary and the Metropolitan police.
This is a shocking abuse of armed officers and we should expect the cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill to conduct an inquiry and the police to conduct an inquiry and this is a little like a Mafia movie, where somebody takes out a hit on somebody and hasn’t asked approval from the boss.
It’s understood the issue of leaks from Government was discussed with Ms Khan before her sacking. Yet there’s no suggestion she’d been involved in releasing sensitive data and government sources affirmed Ms Khan was not held accountable for the exposure of Operation Yellowhammer on no-deal Brexit.
And Ms Khan is understood to have been left horrified by the event while Sajid Javid, her boss, is said to have not known until after it occurred and the Chancellor was made to deny any disagreement with the Prime Minister after he reportedly raised the sacking in an irate private clash.
It’s sad to say though that he won’t encounter any type of interrogation, as he probably won’t turn up and if he did, he’d simply tell them to sling their hook, as it would no doubt be another toothless useless performance by a group of posing MPs pretending to look like they’re doing something to earn their publicly funded salaries while securely cloistered inside the House of Commons.
And if a person looks like a nasty piece of work, then there’s a really good possibility that he is and Dominic Cummings certainly looks like an irksome character and if you dine with the devil a pretty long spoon is needed.
Ms Khan’s was clearly, a few feet short and there’ll be plenty of fools queuing up to succeed her, who’ll then whinge from the rooftops when the same thing ultimately happens to them.
And Dominic Cummings shouldn’t be anywhere near No 10 or parliament whilst he’s still in disgrace. Where have our standards gone in this country and under a Conservative government too?
And under this government, lowering standards in this country are as certain as night following day and I suspect they’re getting careless now and oligarch Boris Johnson isn’t satisfied with destroying democracy, he’s now quelling his critics.
And there’s a prima facie claim here for an employment tribunal case for many reasons and the possibility of an extremely big payout and it won’t be Dominic Cummings that will be picking up that tab, nor the immense legal fees, it’ll be the average taxpayer of course.
Armed officers are not there outside No 10 for employment conflicts, that’s down to HR professionals to ensure that idiot employers don’t make fundamental blunders or overstep their power, or act outside the accepted complaint procedures.
Dominic Cummings had done the lot and in normal circumstances, he would be for the high jump but when a dictator appoints a fool who’s already in contempt of Parliament, you know he’s not selecting the most intelligent and the most dependable.
