Dominic Cummings has branded Boris Johnson a “complete f***wit” and said it is his “duty” to get rid of him as prime minister.
The former Downing Street aide said the campaign to remove Mr Johnson from office was an “unpleasant but necessary job” which was akin to “fixing the drains”.
In an explosive interview with New York Magazine, Mr Cummings claimed the prime minister was too preoccupied with media coverage and believed he was “the f***ing king”.
He said: “You know, as he said to me, ‘I’m the f***ing king around here and I’m going to do what I want.’
“That’s not okay. He’s not the king. He can’t do what he wants. Once you realise someone is operating like that then your duty is to get rid of them, not to just prop them up.”
Mr Cummings’ comments come shortly after he gave evidence to senior civil servant Sue Gray’s investigation into lockdown-breaking parties held in Downing Street during lockdown. A heavily redacted version of the report is expected to be given to No10 as early as Monday.
During the interview, he said that the prime minister had been obsessed with the campaign to get Big Ben to bong on January 31, 2020 to mark Britain’s departure from the European Union.
“I was sitting in No10 with Boris and the complete f***wit is just babbling on about: ‘Will Big Ben bong for Brexit on the 31st of January?’ He goes on and on about this day after day,” he said.
Elsewhere during the interview, Mr Cummings said that the prime minister believes he is like “a Roman emperor” and thinks about “monuments” being built in his honour.
“The only thing he was really interested in — genuinely excited about — was, like, looking at maps. Where could he order the building of things?” he added.
Mr Cummings left Downing Street in November 2020 following a widely reported power struggle with Mr Johnson and his then fiancee Carrie Symonds. His departure came eight days after the imposition of the second national lockdown.
He has also faced his own allegations of defying lockdown rules when it was revealed he left London for a trip to his family’s home in Durham during the first national lockdown.
Earlier this month, he claimed evidence was being kept from Sue Gray’s inquiry because staff feared it would be seen by Mr Johnson.
He suggested that meant that further evidence – including photos – will keep leaking after her report is published.
