BORIS Johnson is reportedly finding it hard to hire for top positions in Downing Street as nobody wants to work closely with Dominic Cummings, his chief aide.
The Prime Minister is looking for a chief of staff, and has asked Andrew Feldman, the former Conservative Party chairman, to take on the role.
However, Lord Feldman, who is one of David Cameron’s close friends and worked out of Downing Street while he was prime minister, has reportedly turned down the role.
A source told The Sunday Times that one of the things preventing Feldman accepting the role was Cummings, saying: "Dom was one of the issues."
Johnson has also asked another former prime minister, Theresa May, to front the COP26 Glasgow climate conference in 2021.
However, having to work closely with Cummings has reportedly also prevented May from taking the role, though she has not yet ruled herself out.
READ MORE: Theresa May asked to take helm of Glasgow's COP26 climate summit
Cummings has apparently told Johnson that he does wish not to hold the “chief of staff” title, and that he would refuse to work under anybody who did.
As the Prime Minister’s chief advisor, Cummings has insisted all political aides report directly to him.
Many Conservative MPs have voiced concern about the amount of power Cummings wields inside number 10, and have wanted him gone since at least the Barnard Castle fiasco.
Over 60 MPs publicly condemned the aide’s journey at the height of lockdown, with at least 50 privately telling the party whips they wanted him to step down.
One unnamed backbencher told the New Statesman that many Tories “effectively became independent Conservative MPs” the moment Cummings refused to leave.
READ MORE: Tory MP tells Scots to 'get used to' Westminster power grabs
Johnson has reportedly complained that this aggressive posturing in some of his government’s communications has “needlessly narrowed” his support base.
It has been suggested that his goal of finding a new chief of staff would also serve to curb some of Dominic Cummings's power and allow Johnson to present a more conciliatory front, rather than that of a hard-right Brexit fanatic.
Last week, one UK Cabinet minister told the Telegraph that Cummings was the source of most of the UK Tories' problems.
They said: "There isn’t one cabinet minister – bar Michael [Gove] – who doesn’t secretly think Dom is at the root of all this."
The same minister said that a hunt for a chief of staff was a hunt for a "counterbalancing force" to Cummings.
If there was someone else "who the PM starts to listen to, who has actually got his back," the minister said, "then we could start to find a way out of this mess".
However, senior figures inside the government have told The Sunday Times that Cummings is still going nowhere, with one saying he is “literally chief of all the staff”.
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