Boris Johnson has said Rishi Sunak is a “stooge” put in place by his former senior adviser Dominic Cummings, according to the former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries.

Johnson said: “I heard that Cummings has said he started to plot to get rid of me in January 2020. The plot was always to get Rishi in. I just couldn’t see it at the time. It’s like this Manchurian candidate, their stooge.”