Boris Johnson will back new mates up north, say aides

Boris Johnson will attempt to reassure restless Tory MPs that he remains committed to the party’s new northern heartlands.

Dominic Cummings leaves his London home at the weekend. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will attempt to reassure restless Conservative MPs that he remains committed to the party’s new northern heartlands despite plans for a political “reset” after the departure of his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, from Downing Street.

Before he was told to self-­isolate, Mr Johnson and his aides were preparing a series of announcements this week on education, skills and the environment in an attempt to seize back the political agenda after a week of destabilising infighting.

On Sunday night, a government source said they still hoped to make the announcements, even if Mr Johnson would have to make them from the Downing Street flat. Meetings were due to be held overnight on Monday to assess the situation.

Some changes do not require Mr Johnson’s presence. For example, in a more symbolic move Downing Street will end its boycott of ITV’s Good Morning Britain, which has not had a ministerial guest since the election last year. Lee Cain, Downing Street’s former director of communications who left on Friday, had ordered the boycott because of what he felt was unfair and bullying questioning by the show’s host, Piers Morgan.

No 10 aides were also at pains on Sunday to insist that there would be no change in the government’s broader agenda and in particular Mr Johnson’s commitment to “levelling up” the north and the Midlands.

Amid growing backbench concern over talk of the “reset”, Mr Johnson had been due to meet the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs to try to reassure them that he would not renege on promised investment in regional jobs and infrastructure.

In tense WhatsApp conver­sations on Sunday, the group, led by Jake Berry, voiced concerns that overtures from Mr Johnson to ­socially liberal voters on green and cultural issues risked jeopardising their seats.

Likening the battle over Mr Johnson’s office to Otto von Bismarck’s struggle to impose state control on appointments to the Catholic Church in 19th-­century Prussia, one northern minister said the NRG had resolved to wage “kulturkampf” against the liberalising tendency in No 10. Many northern MPs believe that the Downing Street faction that ousted Mr Cummings and Mr Cain is too London-­centric. “If he says anything other than we are doubling down on our commitment to the ­levelling-up agenda, he might as well start packing his bags,” one said.

Sources close to Mr Berry said the NRG would demand reassurances that any new No 10 team would maintain the government’s commitments to the red wall of former Labour seats that fell to the Tories at the December election and promote northern MPs in any cabinet reshuffle.

“The Prime Minister is going to face difficult questions,” a senior NRG source said.

“We need reassurances that any replacements for Cummings and Cain have the north’s best interests at heart and we will make sure we get them.”

The scale of government investment is a source of tension with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. Mr Sunak has ­delayed a three-year spending ­review until next year and has warned Mr Johnson against making commitments it may prove impossible to fund. “Rishi has been very clear that we have to maintain our fiscal credibility,” a source said.

The Times