Boris Johnson regrets not firing homicidal robot Dominic Cummings following Barnard Castle debacle

Boris Johnson has called his former chief of staff Dominic Cummings strange and compared him to a murderous robot, blaming him for his downfall as prime minister.

In his new autobiography UnchainedMr Johnson traced the collapse of his relationship with Mr Cummings from when they worked to win the EU referendum in 2016.

But the former Prime Minister alleged that the aftermath of Mr Cummings' alleged lockdown-breaking trip to Barnard Castle in 2020 led the former chief of staff to use Partygate as a form of revenge.

In his new book, Mr Johnson describes hearing Mr Cummings in a BBC interview admit that he had conspired to oust him as prime minister in early January 2020, just weeks after the massive election victory.

Mr. Johnson noted: I mean WTF?

You would think the honorable thing to do would have been to resign, if that was how he really felt, he added.

He suggested that Mr. Cummings might have been like the Shakespearean character Iago, pursuing his quest to motivate the unmotivated. Mr Johnson also targeted his former communications director Lee Cain.

But Mr Johnson concluded that the briefings against himself, his wife Carrie, the dog Dilyn and the government as a whole that led to the Partygate scandal may have been motivated by the Barnard Castle affair in early May 2020.

By then, Mr Cummings had contracted Covid and fled London with his family to the north-east while the rest of the country was in lockdown. He then went to Barnard Castle, saying he needed to check his eyesight during training before returning to London.

Johnson noted: I know, I know: it seems pretty thin as it is, but at the time I really believed it.

He had a blazing row with his former colleague and friend Will Walden who urged him to sack Mr Cummings.

But Mr Johnson said he countered: it's all a set-up. It's just a group of left-wing journalists who want revenge for Brexit.

He then forced Mr Cummings to give a press conference in the Downing Street garden before the daily press briefing. Mr Johnson claimed Mr Cummings' truculent behavior meant he had failed to generate much sympathy.

The former prime minister added: I suspect, looking back, that he didn't thank me for heroically trying to defend him, as I had… I think the so-called The Partygate affair that he and Lee Cain were to orchestrate was a sort of revenge for the indignities he believed he had suffered over Barnard Castle.

He described Mr Cummings and Mr Cain as great colleagues and friends during the Leave campaign and said Mr Cummings' role in leading the referendum operation was crucial and said he was sad to sack them.

The problems accelerated when he discovered that a story about his dog Dilyn had come from Mr. Cummings and Mr. Cain.

I discovered much later, in a roundabout way, that Cummings had lied to my face about the attacks on Dilyn. He WAS guilty… Maybe he was somehow nervous about Dilyn and his puppy nose for the truth.

He then said he discovered Mr Cain and Mr Cummings were behind the chatty briefings with the rats and claimed their behavior was becoming increasingly strange.

Mr Johnson makes it clear that the final straw was a malicious briefing against Councilor Kate Bingham.

It was becoming insane, he said, comparing Mr. Cummings to a homicidal robot.

Mr Johnson sacked them on November 13, 2020, but noted that they both left taking boxes of equipment, emails, etc. with them. which they were to use to prepare their future attacks.

However, the former prime minister claimed it became much easier to govern once both parties left.

I felt like a big weight had been lifted and that for the government as a whole things were starting to improve dramatically.