Dominic Cummings is warned that his tell-all Substack newsletter which he uses to hammer Boris Johnson and other ministers may breach rules on post-politics jobs for Downing Street officials
Dominic Cummings has been warned he may have breached rules on senior officials taking up paid work after leaving government by setting up a blog lifting the lid on the inner workings of Downing Street.
Boris Johnson's former chief aide has used the Substack newsletter site to make a series of attacks on his former boss, his wife Carrie, and a number of current and former ministers.
But Lord Pickles, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), has warned that it may break the rules because he charges people £10 a month to receive his gossip.
Acoba is supposed to vet appointments taken by former ministers and senior officials, but Lord Pickles, a former minister himself, said Mr Cummings had failed to seek their advice before launching the project.
In a letter to the Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, published today, Lord Pickles said: 'I understand that Mr Cummings has made an application via the Cabinet Office to the committee for consideration.
'However, in the meantime it appears that Mr Cummings is offering various services for payment via a blog hosted on Substack, the blog for which he is also receiving subscription payments.
'Mr Cummings has failed to seek the committee's advice on this commercial undertaking, nor has the committee received the courtesy of a reply to our letter requesting an explanation.
'Failure to seek and await advice before taking up work is a breach of the Government's rules.'
Boris Johnson's former chief aide has used the Substack newsletter site to make a series of attacks on his former boss, his wife Carrie, and a number of current and former ministers.
But Lord Pickles, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), has warned that it may break the rules because he charges people £10 a month to receive his gossip.
In a letter to the Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, published today, Lord Pickles said: 'Mr Cummings has failed to seek the committee's advice on this commercial undertaking, nor has the committee received the courtesy of a reply to our letter requesting an explanation.
Mr Cummings has used Substack of a wide variety of attacks, as well as question and answer sessions on his time in government.
Last week he accused Mr and Mrs Johnson of acting like a 'demonic Russian virus' last year, branding their relationship 'weird'.
The previous week he lashed out at now former health secretary Matt Hancock. He released a screenshot of a WhatsApp message from May last year in which he voiced concerns about testing people moving from NHS hospitals to care homes.
He had already accused Mr Hancock of claiming that everyone was being tested before being sent to homes - when they were not - something that the Health Secretary has denied.
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Mr Cummings has used Substack of a wide variety of attacks, as well as question and answer sessions on his time in government.
The failure to test everyone leaving NHS hospitals for care facilities has been blamed for the high rate of deaths there among mainly elderly and vulnerable residents.
In the shared Whatsapp message, Mr Cummings asks the PM to put the Department of Health's 'plan for using testing to suppress infections in hospitals and care homes' over the subsequent three to six months on the agenda for a meeting the next day.
He suggested 'these goddamn plans should already exist', adding: 'At the moment I think we are negligently killing the most vulnerable who we are supposed to be shielding and I am extremely worried about it.'
Unveiling the article on Twitter, Mr Cummings said it was 'further evidence on how Hancock/PM negligence killed people'.
Previously he claimed he 'screamed' at Boris Johnson while his chief aide in No10 over the Prime Minister's insistence that Government policy should 'follow the bloody media'.
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