Here is an unattributable reflection on Cummings from a cabinet minister. Not quite the confident united front of the ministerial on-record tweets. “If 2nd story stands up and Durham Police add to their statement, difficult to see how [Cummings keeps job] but he is...

part of the inner crew and Boris has got through a lot of flak in the past”. Perhaps what is most important in those remarks is the reference to the police. Remember it was Durham police who described Cummings’s 250 mile drive to Durham as “most unwise”. And even though...

ministers seem happy to defend Cummings in what they see as a culture war against the Guardian, Mirror and Labour, they balk at characterising the police as an insidious enemy.