Why Cummings’ departure creates new problems for Johnson’s Brexit strategy

The former Chief Adviser has had little to do with the negotiation recently, but his leaving has knock-on effects on it. Here’s why.

Javid is Chancellor. Tugendhat, Foreign Secretary. May, Home Secretary. Introducing the Alternative Cabinet.

The real one is widely and correctly dismissed as weak.  So we’ve had a go at assembling a stronger team.  Here is the result.

Iain Dale: How many Cabinet members would make your fantasy Cabinet? I count five. And it gets worse…

Plus: incompetence, resignations, non-resignations, reputations, my holiday, Any Questions and Finkelstein’s book.

Our survey. Is the Cabinet, which must wrestle with the Coronavirus, fit for purpose?

Four in five of our party member respondents say yes. Hunt is top choice to come in from outside – but there’s no strong support for any non-member.

Dean Godson: How the Conservatives divide on policy towards China

As with Brexit, much of the Tory family finds itself pitted against the permanent State on how Britain aligns itself in the world.

The 38 Conservative MPs who rebelled over Huwaei

They included seven former Cabinet Ministers, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and the Chairman of the 1922 Executive Committee.

WATCH: Johnson attacks SNP over their Common Fisheries Policy stance

He says they are “committed not just to reversing the will of the people but to handing back control of Scotland’s outstanding marine wealth to Brussels!”

Our Survey. Almost half of Tory members now want an electoral pact with the Brexit Party.

We don’t know whether they believe it to be prudent or desirable or both – but the message to the leadership contenders is clear. 

Andrew Gimson’s Commons sketch: May is no Trump, no populist, but nor is she much of a parliamentarian

The Prime Minister looked alone at the Despatch Box.

The 75 Conservative MPs who opposed the Prime Minister’s deal

Mostly ERG-aligned Leavers – but roughly ten former Remainers, a core of whom now back a second referendum.

Andrew Gimson’s Commons sketch: May bores for Brexit, and has hopes of dividing and ruling

The Prime Minister assured Labour MPs that she will stand up for workers’ rights.

Nick Boles: Like all revolutionaries, once-reasonable Brexiteers slide towards ever greater radicalism

Where Farage, Johnson and Paterson once praised the Norway option, it is now denounced as apostasy.

Grayling, Patten, the Far Right, the IRA, Brexit, the Speaker – and the difference between a threat and a warning

If two men are in a car, and the passenger says to the driver: “Look out! You’re going to crash,” he is shouting out the second, not the first.

Brexit, the backstop, Anglo-Irish relations – and learning from Burke

We need a new strategic partnership with Ireland. At the moment, that end seems endlessly remote.

How MPs say they will vote in today’s confidence ballot

We currently have it at 189 declared for May, versus the 31 publicly opposed, and 93 undeclared.