Dominic Cummings unveils plans for new party to replace the Tories

Dominic Cummings has unveiled plans for a new “Start-Up Party” which he claims could replace the Conservatives.

Speaking to the i paper in his first interview since leaving Downing Street in 2020, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser said the new party could capitalise on the expected collapse in the Tory vote at the next general election.

The Vote Leave mastermind claimed a majority of the electorate would support a party that is “completely different” to Labour and the Tories.

“The Tories now obviously represent nothing except a continuation of the sh-- show; higher taxes, worse violent crime, more debt, anti-entrepreneurs, public services failing, immigration out of control,” said Mr Cummings.

“But Labour I think will not alter the ultimate trajectory very much, they’ll be continuity Treasury, continuity David Cameron, George Osborne, Sunak, so everything will keep failing and everyone will be even more miserable by 2026 than they are now.

“So, to change that you have to have two fundamental things: you have to have an entity which is ruthlessly focused on the voters, not on Westminster and the old media.

“And you have to have something which is friendly towards all the amazing talent in the country, people who build things in [the] private and public sector.”

There is no suggestion Mr Cummings’s party would stand candidates in the next general election and he admitted that the ‘first past the post’ electoral system would make it difficult for a new party to break through.

But he insisted Nigel Farage’s expected return to frontline politics could irrevocably damage the Conservatives at the next election and pave the way for a new party to replace them.

“If Farage un-retires, the Tories could easily be driven down to double-digit seats and then discussions of a Start-Up Party and replacing them will go from a very fringe idea to being a very mainstream idea,” he said, adding that the former Brexit Party leader would not be welcome in the new party.

Mr Cummings also said a Keir Starmer-led Labour government would offer no meaningful change from the Tories.

“They’ve got a duff leader who’s s--t at politics, can’t communicate, doesn’t actually have any picture of how he wants to be different, he just wants him to be in charge of the broken old institutions and then do what the Civil Service tell him to do all day,” he said.

He added that the quality of Labour MPs was not high and would make it harder for Mr Starmer to deliver what voters want.

In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Cummings also revealed he has not spoken to Mr Johnson since he walked out of No 10 in November 2020.

He claimed the Tory party has not taken advantage of Brexit opportunities since Britain left the European Union.

Mr Cummings also took aim at the Government’s support for Ukraine, describing the country as a “corrupt mafia state” and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, as a “pumpkin”.

“We should have never got into the whole stupid situation,” he said. “This is not a replay of 1940 with the pumpkin Zelensky as the Churchillian underdog.

“This whole Ukrainian corrupt mafia state has basically conned us all and we’re all going to get f-----d as a consequence. We are getting f-----d now, right?”

Mr Cummings said the West’s support for Ukraine had prompted Russia closer to China and taught Vladimir Putin “that we’re a bunch of total f-----g jokers”.

“I mean Putin already knew that before the war,” he said. “But this has emphasised it and broadcast it to the entire world.”