‘Come on Jeremy. Let’s do this election. Don’t be scared’: Dominic Cummings ‘demanded Jeremy Corbyn accept PM’s challenge of snap poll in face-to-face encounter in Parliament late last night’
- Boris Johnson’s top aide reportedly walked past the Labour leader last night
- Mr Cummings said to have told Mr Corbyn not to be ‘scared’ and back snap poll
- Interaction apparently happened after Mr Johnson lost a crunch Brexit vote
By Jack Maidment, Deputy Political Editor For Mailonline
Published: 07:36 EDT, 4 September 2019 | Updated: 08:45 EDT, 4 September 2019
Boris Johnson‘s top aide Dominic Cummings challenged Jeremy Corbyn to accept the Prime Minister’s offer of an early general election in a bizarre face-to-face encounter in Parliament last night, it has been claimed.
Mr Cummings apparently bumped into the Labour leader in a parliamentary corridor as the latter was heading back to his Commons office.
They reportedly crossed paths immediately after opposition MPs and Tory rebels had successfully seized control of the Brexit process and Mr Johnson had signalled his intention to try to force a snap poll.
Mr Cummings is said to have shouted at Mr Corbyn: ‘Come on Jeremy. Let’s do this election. Don’t be scared.’
The encounter appeared to be confirmed by Cat Smith, a Labour MP and shadow Cabinet minister, who said Mr Corbyn was with other members of his top team when Mr Cummings addressed him.
Ms Smith tweeted: ‘As one of several shadow cabinet members stood right next to Jeremy (who was on the phone at the time) I just thought there was some loud bloke who stunk of booze yelling at us.’
Earlier in the evening Mr Cummings was reportedly seen holding a glass of red wine in a corridor where newspapers have their offices in Parliament.
He had earlier made a surprise appearance at a Downing Street briefing of journalists in Parliament.
Dominic Cummings, pictured leaving 10 Downing Street today, reportedly urged Jeremy Corbyn to back Boris Johnson’s plan for an early election when they bumped into each other last night
Mr Corbyn, pictured leaving his London home this morning, will not back holding an election until a No Deal Brexit has been formally ruled out
Labour shadow minister Cat Smith appeared to confirm that the encounter between Mr Cummings and Mr Corbyn had taken place
Mr Johnson has repeatedly insisted that he does not want to hold an early general election but believes he has no other choice than to seek one because opposition MPs want to remove his negotiating leverage of a No Deal divorce on October 31.
Speaking after MPs voted last night to take control of the Commons in order to crash through an anti-No Deal law in the coming days, Mr Johnson said: ‘I don’t want an election.
‘The public don’t want an election. But if the House votes for this Bill tomorrow the public will have to choose who goes to Brussels on October 17 to sort this out and take this country forward.’
Mr Johnson is expected to ask MPs to vote for an early election this evening.
But with Labour due to oppose the move on the grounds that No Deal must be ruled out first the PM appears doomed to another defeat.
Mr Cummings, the maverick architect of the Vote Leave campaign in 2016, is an increasingly divisive figure in the Conservative Party amid questions of whether he is a Tory member.
Mr Johnson’s top aide was the subject of intense scrutiny yesterday after it was claimed that he had described Brexit re-negotiations as a ‘sham’.
Downing Street furiously denied the accusation.
Meanwhile, Philip Hammond, the former chancellor who was one of 21 Tory rebels to be expelled from the Conservative Party last night, accused Mr Cummings of being an ‘entryist’.
Mr Hammond did not mention Mr Johnson’s most senior aide by name during a BBC radio interview yesterday morning.
But he said: ‘A lot of my colleagues have come under immense pressure. Some of them have responded to that pressure by saying “enough, I am going”.
‘That is not going to be my approach. This is my party. I have been a member of this party for 45 years.
‘I am going to defend my party against incomers, entryists, who are trying to turn it from a broad church into narrow faction.
Philip Hammond, pictured in the House of Commons yesterday, labelled Mr Cummings an ‘entryist’ and claimed he is not a member of the Conservative Party
‘People who are at the heart of this government, who are probably not even members of the Conservative Party, who care nothing about the future of the Conservative Party, I intend to defend my party against them.’
Mr Hammond told the BBC it was his understanding that Mr Cummings was not a card carrying member of the Conservative Party.
‘My colleague David Gauke suggested yesterday that he is not a member of the Conservative Party,’ the former chancellor said.
‘It is my understanding he is not and never has been a member of the Conservative Party.
‘I haven’t heard a denial from Downing Street, but perhaps we will hear one if that is not the case.’
A senior government source told MailOnline: ‘Dominic is here to deliver what the people voted for which is that we leave. That is in the Tory manifesto.’
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