'CHINO': The nickname given to Sajid Javid ahead of his resignation by Cummings allies
Sajid Javid was given the nickname ‘CHINO’ – chancellor in name only – before he quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet.
The name was cooked up by allies of Dominic Cummings, the PM’s controversial top adviser.
The name ‘CHINO’ was the trigger for Sajid Javid’s fall-out with Boris Johnson, according to the Daily Mail.
Javid’s resignation was a surprise moment during Thursday’s reshuffle and came after he refused to cave to demands from Downing Street to sack his entire team of aides.
In an interview in the wake of his decision to quit, he said: “no self respecting minister would accept the conditions offered by the prime minister”.
The move marked the climax in a power-struggle between Javid and Cummings.
The ongoing struggle between Downing Street and the Treasury apparently erupted into a feud when Cummings sacked Javid’s special adviser Sonia Khan without informing him, accusing her of remaining in contact with her former boss, ex-chancellor Philip Hammond.
The rift deepened amid rivalry between the two over spending and who should control the Government’s purse strings.
READ MORE
'Get over it!': Labour's Angela Rayner tells sacked Tory ministers to stop 'moaning'
The feud became obvious in press briefings when allies of Cummings coined the nickname ‘CHINO’, alluding to Javid’s lack of control over the country’s finances.
It set the pattern for an increasingly fraught relationship between the two men with markedly different visions for the direction the Government should be taking.
While Cummings was said to be keen to cast off spending constraints with extra cash for the police and the NHS, Javid was determined to keep control of the public finances.
According to reports, once he stepped inside Downing Street, Javid was faced with an ultimatum to sack all of his special advisers and replace them with a team chosen by No 10.
Unwilling to back down, he refused and handed in his resignation.
Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
