(CN) — He's been called a political Svengali and Rasputin, one of the world's most influential behind-the-scenes political figures, the ruthless right-wing mastermind behind the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union and the man who brought Boris Johnson into No. 10 Downing Street.
Now, this wily and wiry character, Johnson's 48-year-old top aide Dominic Cummings, is at the center of a political storm that is engulfing the U.K. government at a moment when it can least afford an erosion of confidence as it seeks to cross waters made chaotic and turbulent by Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic.
Cummings isn't accused of high crimes or some deviant action. Instead, he's accused of breaking stay-at-home lockdown rules when he fled London on March 27 with his wife and 4-year-old boy and drove 260 miles to stay at a cottage on his parents' farm in County Durham in northeast England. Later, on Easter Sunday, he drove his wife and child to historic Barnard Castle, a 30-minute drive from his family's home in Durham.
Making this blunder worse, he and his wife, a conservative journalist and baronet's daughter, were sick, most likely after Cummings contracted the coronavirus while in Downing Street. He was among several top government officials who fell sick, including Johnson, from Covid-19. The wave of sickness inside Downing Street compounded a sense that the U.K.'s response to the pandemic was slow, incompetent and led to many more deaths.
Cummings plays a big role in this too. He has been accused of being partly responsible for the U.K.'s delay in imposing a lockdown, which government advisers admit led to a higher death count. The U.K. has Europe's highest death toll with more than 37,500 fatalities, though the figure is likely much higher due to a lag in reporting.
Cummings' late-night dash away from London slowly came to light and then broke last weekend as media reports revealed new details – though also allegedly reported factual mistakes – on his whereabouts and actions between March 27 and April 14.
Since then, the public's anger over Cummings’ actions and his boss' refusal to sack him has only snowballed. It's a state of affairs that even threatens to do lasting damage to Johnson's nascent populist Tory right-wing government that seemed invincible only three months ago before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
The erosion of trust is profound. More than 60 members of Johnson's Conservative Party are calling for Cummings to go, including some high-profile names. Even conservative newspapers have denounced Cummings and demanded he “do his duty” and resign.
Graffiti condemning Cummings has sprung up as have protest signs. Under one roadway sign in London emblazoned with the government's message to “Stay Alert Control the Virus Save Lives,” someone tacked up a handmade sign with the words: “Except Dominic Cummings.”
Demonstrators now stage themselves outside Downing Street holding signs mocking Johnson's sloganeering over Brexit: “Take Back Control Sack Him Now!” During the Brexit debates, Cummings is credited with crafting the notion that Britons would “take back control” of their government by leaving the EU and its institutions. Brexit and Cummings' role in leading the campaign against the EU have deeply scarred the U.K. and left it bitterly divided. Johnson and Cummings used populist anti-elitist messages to win the Brexit referendum and since taking over the government they have won the hearts of many working-class voters by promising to lead a “people's government.”
But working-class voters, many of whom voted for the Tories for the first time in December elections to “get Brexit done” and elect Johnson, now may be souring on Johnson's populist promises and the image of Cummings fleeing London during the lockdown for a country home has a lot to do that.
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