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It's been one of the most traumatic weeks in political history in Westminster as Boris Johnson has lost his two most key and loyal aides from his Downing Street operation. Dominic Cummings has been Boris Johnson's most influential political adviser since he entered Downing Street last summer. He's been the driving force on policy matters from Brexit to coronavirus.
He's provided the intellectual drive behind Mr Johnson's premiership, much of that coming from his experience as the chief strategist in the 2016 Brexit campaign during the referendum. But he found himself in the middle of a power struggle about the future direction of the Johnson government and has found himself at odds with Mr Johnson's fiancee, Carrie Symonds. Mr Cummings left Downing Street, along with the director of communications, Lee Cain, and they're both going to be replaced by two women.
The first person is Allegra Stratton. She's going to be the prime minister's new press secretary. She's formerly a political journalist with The Guardian, BBC, and ITV News, and she's soon going to become the face of the government by hosting daily Downing Street press conferences in the vein of the sort of things you would see in the White House.
The other key individual here is Munira Mirza. She's the head of the Downing Street policy unit. And in the vacuum created by Mr Cummings's departure, she's likely to step in to make sure that the government doesn't let its levelling up agenda get set aside or forget about those first-time Tory voters in the North of England.
The style of this new Downing Street operation is going to be very different. Whereas under Mr Cummings and Mr Cain it was very aggressive, a focus on campaigning in a very pugilistic style, the new Downing Street is going to be far more consensual, with the prime minister looking to reach out to Conservative MPs, ministers, and the media, who have all felt out of step.
But the question is, will this style work better than the old aggressive one? Or are the issues in fact with Mr Johnson himself?
The biggest challenge for Boris Johnson now after losing two of his closest advisers is to get his government back on track. His first year in office hasn't quite gone to plan, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. What he needs to show now is that he has a route out of further lockdowns, he can get on top of the UK's ailing test and trace system, while pushing forward vaccines, and then returning to his domestic agenda.
Mr Johnson was elected on a platform of levelling up. That's tackling regional inequality across England. That agenda is something that Mr Cummings strongly believes in, and it's over to the prime minister to show that he can still push forward on that without his two key aides. If he can do so in a more consensual style, then he will find himself back in favour with the general public as well as his own party.
