LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top adviser plans to step down at the end of the year after a bruising battle for influence at the heart of the British government fueled by tensions over Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amid speculation that he would leave the government, Dominic Cummings told the BBC late Thursday that he planned to be “largely redundant” by Christmas. Political commentators had suggested Cummings would step down after one of his allies was denied an appointment as Johnson’s chief of staff.
Cummings, a chief architect of the campaign to have Britain leave the European Union, has been a divisive figure inside the Conservative government since Johnson became prime minister 16 months ago. His position weakened earlier this year after he drove hundreds of miles across England after contracting COVID-19, violating national lockdown rules and leaving the impression that elite officials did not have to obey the same infection-control restrictions as everyone else.
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