Boris Johnson’s plan to safeguard the union in chaos as key aide quits

Boris Johnson’s fight to hold the United Kingdom together descended into chaos on Friday night after the man he appointed to head the Downing Street “union unit” quit after only a fortnight in the job.

Oliver Lewis, charged by Johnson with devising a strategy to counter the Scottish independence movement, quit after a week of turmoil inside Number 10.

Lewis, an architect of the UK’s “hard Brexit” trade deal with the EU, was one of the last remaining allies of Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser, working in Downing Street.

“Clear-out,” rejoiced one senior Conservative. “It’s the final fall of Dom.”

Meanwhile one ally of Cummings, who quit Number 10 last November, said of Lewis’s departure: “They got him.”

Lewis, known as “Sonic”, is thought to have fallen out with supporters of Michael Gove, Cabinet Office minister, in recent days; others said he was simply “knackered” after the strains of negotiating the Brexit trade deal.

But the bad blood in Downing Street has been running thick and fast this week, following Johnson’s decision to elevate Lord David Frost, former chief Brexit negotiator, to the cabinet as his de facto EU minister.

Frost took over Gove’s role in implementing the detail of the EU trade deal and the move was accompanied by claims that Gove had been too soft with Brussels since Brexit took effect on January 1. Frost, it was asserted, would be more robust.

Some in Downing Street attributed the hostile briefings against Gove to Lewis, who declined to comment last night. Number 10 insiders said the tensions between Lewis and the Gove camp had become intense.

Lewis had threatened to resign last November when his friends Cummings and Lee Cain, former communications director, were forced out, but on Friday he finally broke his links with Johnson.

Friends of Lewis denied claims by government insiders that he had asked for a knighthood for his work on Brexit but it had been refused by Johnson; they say Lewis wrote a note asking for honours for other Brexit negotiators but not himself.

Lewis, seen as a highly effective campaigner and sharp operator, was rewarded instead with a role running Johnson’s “union unit”, replacing Luke Graham, a former Tory MP, in that role earlier this month.

With Scottish elections taking place in May and with Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, pushing for a second independence referendum, the job was seen as vital.

But Lewis had no connection to Scotland and was seen by some Scottish Tories as a strange appointment. Downing Street on Friday night declined to comment on “personnel issues”.

Sturgeon tweeted: “Disunity in the Union unit. Or maybe just despair at realising how threadbare the case for it is.”

Lewis was the architect of Johnson’s threat last year to break international law in relation to the Northern Ireland protocol — part of the Brexit treaty — in an attempt to put pressure on Brussels during trade talks.

The policy was condemned by every living previous prime minister and was seen as highly damaging to Britain’s standing in the world.