Readout from Cummings' SpAd Zoom 1) He said that the stories about No 10 wanting to create a hub and spoke system are "more media inventions"

Readout from Cummings' SpAd Zoom 2) Claimed the goal is to make the centre smaller, empower departments and change civil service fundamentals to improve performance.

Readout from Cummings' SpAd Zoom 3) "Anybody who has read what I've said about management over the years will know it's ludicrous to suggest the solution to Whitehall's problems is a bigger centre and more centralisation..."

Readout from Cummings' SpAd Zoom 4) "...it's already far too big, incoherent and adds to the problems with departments".

Readout from Cummings' SpAd Zoom 5) Signalled big changes coming to how No 10 & the Cabinet Office work - "a smaller, more focused and more elite centre" is needed.

Readout from Cummings' SpAd Zoom 6) Also said that Covid has exposed fundamental problems in the Whitehall machine and that many officials now accepted the need for radical changes.

Cummings SpAd Zoom postscript: on the future of the Cabinet Office, see also from May on @ConHome how it will take part of the rap for Covid failures - https://bit.ly/2No1fbC