Dominic Cummings offered to help Jeremy Corbyn become prime minister before the 2019 general election, a new book has claimed.
Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff reportedly spent months pursuing the former Labour leader before eventually going to work for the ex-prime minister, believing that Mr Corbyn could have pushed Brexit through and annihilated the Conservatives electorally.
In a major revelation, Get In, a new book telling the story of the Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer by journalists Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, reveals that Mr Cummings met Matt Zarb-Cousin and James Schneider, both of whom ran communications under Mr Corbyn, to set out a strategy under which the left winger would become PM and the Conservatives would descend into years of destructive infighting.
The book, being serialised in The Times, details how Mr Cummings in 2019 believed Brexit could be best achieved by Mr Corbyn, and that he was willing to support the Labour leader in pulling Britain out of the European Union.
Mr Cummings is said to have tried to convince Mr Schneider and Mr Zarb-Cousin that Mr Corbyn should whip Labour MPs to vote for Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement in early 2019, believing it would force a split in the Conservative Party and lead to Ms May’s resignation.
Mr Corbyn would then be freed from the divisions in the Labour Party over Brexit, and would be able to run an insurgent left-wing campaign with the promise of more funding for the NHS and public services, Mr Cummings reportedly believed.
It meant the long-standing Brexiteer and right-wing populist was willing to put his political differences with Mr Corbyn aside in order to prevent a second Brexit referendum and ensure the UK left the EU.
Mr Cummings is also said to have hoped Labour under Mr Corbyn would have used its time in government to reshape the civil service and overhaul government structures.
In the book, Mr Schneider is quoted as saying: “I wanted Brexit to pass, the Tories to split, us to run a left-populist insurgent campaign, have a proper operation to do that, and therefore win.”
In a text to Mr Zarb-Cousin, Mr Cummings added: “Thanks for dinner comrade! You get Brexit through, [People’s Vote] f***ed … high chance of Govt collapse and election pre-August but Tory civil war guaranteed for years in any scenario.”
And he wrote: “My view has been strengthened that 2REF [second referendum] = crackup for both parties, it will be a messy race to see which party collapses fastest under the pressure. Jeremy on the same side as Blair and Chuka [Umunna] when a tidal wave of hate is unleashed outside the M25 wd be disaster for him in marginal seats but ditto for Tories.”
He added: “Long-term strategic danger for LAB is the crackup gives Tories a big strategic advantage with working classes for years to come, after they re-form as a clearly Brexit party … and they brand Labour as ‘against working-class people on Brexit and immigration, and Labour doesn’t respect democracy’.”
Eventually, Mr Corbyn did endorse a second referendum on Europe and Mr Cummings went to work for Mr Johnson.
He followed the strategy he had offered Mr Corbyn, shaping the Conservatives as a pro-Brexit party and running the 2019 general election under the promise to “get Brexit done”.
The catastrophic election defeat that followed saw Sir Keir take over as leader of the Labour Party, while Mr Johnson’s eventual downfall sparked the Tory collapse which saw him enter Downing Street last year.
