Boris Johnson has today appointed a former Treasury official who advised former chancellors George Osborne and Alistair Darling as his new chief of staff after a brutal civil war inside No 10 saw Dominic Cummings leave following a power struggle with Carrie Symonds.
The PM has recruited Dan Rosenfield for the key job at Downing Street in the wake of the extraordinary row that saw Mr Cummings and his right-hand man Lee Cain depart.
Mr Rosenfield will take over in the role from the New Year, as Mr Johnson looks to ‘reset’ his premiership, with former colleagues describing the Manchester United fan as a ‘bright, tough and politically savvy’ economic expert from firmly from outside the Westminster bubble.
The PM’s director of communications Lee Cain, a key ally of Mr Cummings, was said to have been offered the chief of staff post earlier this month.
But he then dramatically quit after an apparent power struggle between the Vote Leave faction in No10, and Mr Johnson’s fiancee Carrie Symonds and new press secretary Allegra Stratton who opposed Mr Cain’s appointment.
Mr Johnson was furious at claims that Miss Symonds’ Tory foes, including Cummings and Cain, had allegedly dubbed his fiancee and mother of his son ‘Princess Nut Nut’.
The PM has appointed Dan Rosenfield to the key job at Downing Street in the wake of the extraordinary row that saw Dominic Cummings depart
Carrie Symonds (pictured with Boris Johnson in March) has been at the centre of an extraordinary briefing war that saw Dominic Cummings and his Vote Leave faction effectively ousted from Downing Street
Mr Rosenfield, a father-of-three married to Jessica, the daughter of Daily Mail City Editor Alex Brummer, will return to Whitehall from Hakluyt, a strategic advisory firm for businesses and investors, where he has worked since 2016. He is also chairman of World Jewish Relief, the British Jewish community’s humanitarian agency.
Previously he was a director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for four years after leaving his last government job in 2011.
Before that Mr Rosenfield was an official in the UK Treasury for over a decade, including four years as principal private secretary to Alistair Darling and George Osborne from 2007 to 2011.
In that time he was involved in setting the budget for London 2012 after the city’s Olympic bid win in 2005.
Mr Rosenfield will start on December 7, but Lord Udny-Lister will continue to serve as acting chief of staff until January 1.
He is also chairman of World Jewish Relief, the British Jewish community’s humanitarian agency.
Mr Rosenfield’s appointment came after the culmination of a bitter power struggle inside Mr Johnson’s top team, with rival factions battling for supremacy even as the government struggles to tackle the coronavirus crisis.
Dominic Cummings had pushed for his ally Lee Cain to be appointed to chief of staff despite warnings from the PM’s fiancée Ms Symonds – herself a former Conservative Party head of media – that it would be ‘a mistake’ given how the campaign against the pandemic had gone so far.
She is said to have complained the No10 operation was being run in an ‘uncollegiate’ way and the PM was not getting ‘good advice’.
There were also claims that Allegra Stratton, Downing Street’s new on-screen press secretary, and senior aide Munira Mirza were against the move. It would have meant the PM’s core circle being exclusively male.
Ms Stratton was said to have only agreed to take the job if she reported directly to the PM, not Mr Cain – leaving him feeling ‘wholly undermined’.
Mr Cain was said to have opposed her appointment and the pair had not spoken since she arrived in the role a fortnight ago.
In his resignation statement, he confirmed he had been offered the powerful post – which allies insisted was ‘basically what he does anyway’ – but after ‘careful consideration’ would be leaving at the end of the year.
After losing the latest tug-of-war for Mr Johnson’s ear, the PM’s maverick chief adviser Mr Cummings was next out of the door two days later.
Insiders said the acrimony between Miss Symonds and Mr Cummings and Mr Cain was obvious as far back as March.
Mr Rosenfield’s appointment came after the departure of Dominic Cummings (left) and communications chief Lee Cain (right)
Friends of Miss Symonds (pictured with her dog Dilyn) hailed her for ending the ‘macho culture’ within No 10
The web of connections in Downing Street, which has been reeling from factional infighting during the coronavirus crisis
The former BBC and ITV journalist Allegra Stratton is pictured departing Downing Street. She is claimed to have also advised the PM not to appoint Lee Cain, after he was offered the job
It was then that she allegedly tried to stop the Prime Minister hosting a Covid crisis meeting to deal instead with a newspaper report claiming she wanted to get rid of their beloved Jack Russell cross Dilyn.
Mr Cummings ‘forced’ Mr Johnson to overrule his fiancee, it was claimed. He told No 10 officials to block any phone calls from Miss Symonds to the Prime Minister about the dog, it was claimed. And he gave orders for Miss Symonds’ official protest about the news report about Dilyn to be ‘burned’.
Miss Symonds was said to be livid at a report in The Times which claimed that she no longer liked the animal. She went on Twitter to denounce it, saying: ‘Total load of c***. There has never been a happier, healthier and more loved dog than Dilyn.’
An insider claimed: ‘We were dealing with the extraordinary chaos of Covid, and Carrie f***** the (PM’s Downing Street) private office up for a whole day. All over something trivial about her dog’.
But many senior Conservatives have voiced concern at the apparent level of influence Miss Symonds has over Mr Johnson both politically and personally.
Miss Symonds, former head of Tory communications, has strong views on issues from the environment to early parole for rapists.
A close ally of Miss Symonds said: ‘Surely it is in the Prime Minister’s interest that he hears from a range of people.
‘What man wouldn’t ask their informed partner for their opinion on something to do with work?’ But a No 10 figure claimed Miss Symonds ‘bombards [Mr Johnson] with texts and everyone in Downing Street knows about their rows.
Mr Cummings told the Mail earlier this month: ‘I’ve nothing bad to say about Carrie, I wish her well.’