All the anti-Europeans are still there, including Gove, Rees Mogg and the ERG, not to mention the 55 Tufton Street mob who have invested heavily in a No Deal Brexit.

I suspect that Johnson had realised that the 1922 committee were starting to mutter about incompetence and that he was over reliant on Cummings. The only people who can oust Johnson are the Tory back benchers and they were becoming restive.

My take on the departure of Cummings and Cain is that it's an attempt to "get the old Boris back", a quick rebrand, though whether there'll be any actual change of policy remains to be seen.

Edited at 2020-11-15 02:24 pm (UTC)

It may well be that Ward is trying to read more into the Downing St spat than is really there- but I thought his view was worth thinking about.

Johnson without Cummings is likely to be even more at sea than Johnson with Cummings- but we'll see what happens.