Dominic Cummings posts job advert calling for 'super-talented weirdos' and 'wild cards' to work for Boris Johnson

Political advisor Dominic Cummings arrives at 10 Downing Street
Getty Images
Katy Clifton2 January 2020
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Dominic Cummings has posted a baffling job advert calling for "super-talented weirdos", "wild cards" and "unusual mathematicians" to work in Number 10.

Boris Johnson's special adviser published a blog post on Thursday saying that Downing Street wants to hire "an unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds".

Mr Cummings said that job categories are for "weirdos and misfits with odd skills" as well as economists, communication experts and junior researchers, one of whom "will be my personal assistant".

For the personal assistant role, Mr Cummings said the job would mean no "weekday date nights" and the employee will have to "sacrifice many weekends"

"Frankly it will [be] hard having a boy/girlfriend at all," he added.

"It will be exhausting but interesting and if you cut it you will be involved in things at the age of ~21 that most people never see."

Dominic Cummings is Boris Johnson's special adviser
UK PARLIAMENT/AFP via Getty Imag

He also warned that he would "bin you within weeks if you don't fit - don't complain later because I made it clear now".

The blog says: "We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole.

He also appealed for "weirdos from William Gibson novels like that girl hired by Bigend as a brand ‘diviner’ who feels sick at the sight of Tommy Hilfiger or that Chinese-Cuban free runner from a crime family hired by the KGB."

He added: "If you want to figure out what characters around Putin might do, or how international criminal gangs might exploit holes in our border security, you don’t want more Oxbridge English graduates who chat about Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers and spread fake news about fake news."

Applicants have been encouraged to apply with a one-page email of ideas to an unofficial Gmail account - ideasfornumber10@gmail.com.

Dominic Cummings has posted a job advert for Downing Street
PA

It comes after Tory adviser Rachel Wolf said the civil service is facing "seismic" changes after the Conservative Party secured a landslide win in the general election.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Ms Wolf said reported plans for merging, creating or abolishing departments are just a "tiny fraction" of the changes set to be implemented.

Ms Wolf said the changes, set to begin in the spring after the UK is due to leave the EU at the end of the month, will end the "merry-go-round" of officials changing jobs every 18 months.

Posting the job advert on Wednesday, Mr Cummings added: "We want to improve performance and make me much less important — and within a year largely redundant.

"At the moment I have to make decisions well outside what Charlie Munger calls my ‘circle of competence’ and we do not have the sort of expertise supporting the Prime Minister and ministers that is needed.

"This must change fast so we can properly serve the public."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in