Maverick No10 chief Dominic Cummings tours classified sites including MI5, MI6 and the SAS headquarters as he plans shake-up of military and security services
- Dominic Cummings is touring highly secret sites as part of overhaul, leak claims
- Has visited MI5 and MI6 and will be going to the Porton Down laboratory base
- Claims that the No10 chief is determined to ‘sort out’ organisation in defence
Dominic Cummings is touring highly secret military and security service sites amid claims he is determined to ‘sort out’ hapless procurement and organisation, it was revealed today.
The maverick No10 chief has visited MI5 and MI6 twice, and will be going to a series of other sensitive sites soon.
Mr Cummings, who has been a vicious critic of the Ministry of Defence in particular, has made overhauling the government machine a key priority.
According to a memo leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald, he will tour the Special Boat Service based at Poole in Dorset, the SAS headquarters in Hereford, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, the Rapid Capabilities Office at Farnborough and the defence intelligence unit at Wyton.
Earlier this year, Mr Cummings was seen with government pass suggesting he had mid-level security clearance, but he is now thought to have secured a higher level.
Mr Cummings has been a pivotal figure in pushing through an overhaul of the Whitehall machinery, with claims Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill and other senior mandarins have been forced out to clear the way.
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down is among the sites that Dominic Cummings is planning to visit, according to the leaked memo
Chief of the Defence Staff Nick Carter (left) was warned yesterday that Mr Cummings (right) wants to ‘sort out’ the Ministry of Defence
In blogs before he was recruited by Boris Johnson, Mr Cummings urged the introduction of ‘red teams’ explicitly tasked with finding reasons why the government should not be following policies.
He has been an advocate of ‘Super-Forecasters’, individuals who have no specific expertise but are able to predict events because of their mental process.
Mr Cummings has been particularly scathing about the way the Ministry of Defence runs its procurement, branding it a ‘farce’.
He claimed the military ‘continued to squander billions of pounds, enriching some of the worst corporate looters and corrupting public life via the revolving door of officials/lobbyists’.
‘Scrutiny by our MPs has been contemptible. They have built platforms that already cannot be sent to a serious war against a serious enemy,’ he wrote in a blog post titled Drones in March.
‘A teenager will be able to deploy a drone from their smartphone to sink one of these multibillion-dollar platforms.
‘Such a teenager could already take out the stage of a Downing Street photo op with a little imagination and initiative, as I wrote about years ago.’
Tory MP Mark Francois, a former defence minister, delivered a stark message about Mr Cummings’ intentions at a committee hearing with Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter yesterday.
He said: ‘Can we just make a plea to you? You are the professional head of the armed forces.
‘Please nip back to the department and ask them to sort their bloody selves out because if not Cummings is gonna come down and sort you out his own way and you won’t like it.’
The statement provoked a laugh from the top general, while committee chair Tobias Elwood added: ‘I think that message is passed on.’
Tory MP Mark Francois delivered a stark message to the Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter yesterday, saying Mr Cummings was determined to ‘sort out’ the MoD