It was said to be the moment tensions between Boris Johnson and one of his closest aides over the Government’s Brexit strategy finally spilled out into the open.
Reports of Dominic Cummings angrily banging his fist on the table during a meeting between the Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn surfaced soon after the pair met on Wednesday in an attempt to reach a compromise over the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB).
It was alleged that when Mr Johnson asked the opposition leader how long it would take to agree a new timetable after the programme motion calling for his Brexit deal to be passed in three days was voted down on Tuesday night, an irate Cummings interjected: “No!”
Suddenly it seemed as if Mr Johnson was advocating delaying his do or die deadline of October 31 in defiance of the man who advised him to declare his desire to "die in a ditch" rather than ask for an extension.
Number 10 has described reports of the Prime Minister having to rein in his outspoken "personal assistant" as “utter nonsense”, insisting the meeting was "a total waste of time" because Labour “has no policy except more delays and planning to spend 2020 having another referendum”.
“Nobody at the other side is looking at this as a problem that can be jointly solved,” added an insider. “Labour are just looking at it as a way of driving down the Tories’ polling numbers - the ideal scenario for them is to keep on delaying and see us lose our 10 point lead”.
But a Labour source insisted: "They brought up the programme motion but didn't seem to want to discuss it properly.
"Dominic Cummings was the one leaning on pushing the Bill through."
Insisting that a revised timetable would be submitted to the Government lasting days not months, the source added: "Boris Johnson said he was confident [Emmanuel] Macron would veto [an extension] - but that seemed like he said it for public show.”
The former director of Vote Leave was reported to have thrown his arms in the air at the suggestion that the French President was playing them for fools.
Regardless of what really happened during the testy tete and tete, Number 10 is undoubtedly split over whether an election should be held before Brexit has been delivered or after a deal has been passed through both Houses of Parliament.
Having been on an election footing as soon as he entered office 92 days ago, it is no secret Mr Johnson wants to put his premiership to the public test, but is the question of timing putting him at odds with his political svengali?
The latest episode comes after Mr Johnson was forced to tell his cabinet that he had no knowledge of a memo Cummings sent to Spectator magazine on October 7 suggesting that if the Brexit negotiations "died": “We’ll either leave with no deal on 31 October or there will be an election and then we will leave with no deal.”
Faced with outrage from remain cabinet ministers including Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan and Julian Smith, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Johnson is understood to have reassured colleagues: “If you want to know what I think, listen to me.”
On Wednesday, he was forced to defend Cummings during Prime Minister's Questions, saying: "I receive excellent advice from a wide range of advisers and officials. It is the role of advisers to advise and the Government to decide and I take full responsibility for everything this Government does."
Yet with chief of staff Sir Eddie Lister lobbying for a deal first, election second approach, with even Brexiteer cabinet ministers like Andrea Leadsom and Theresa Villiers in support, the Prime Minister is coming under increasing pressure to abandon the purist people versus Parliament snap election campaign advocated by Cummings and his Vote Leave cohort.
According to one well-placed source: “The PM understands the need to get MPs onside, keep Parliament together and maintain the consent of colleagues. Dom just thinks: **** em all. He is convinced that an immediate general election will result in a big majority for the Tories and massive losses for those MPs who have tried to block Brexit. He focus groups all the time so he’s in tune with the public but not remotely in tune with Parliament.”
Sir Eddie, supported by policy chief John Bew and EU Sherpa David Frost think Mr Johnson can secure 10 years in power if he honours his hashtag of "Getting Brexit Done" before going to the polls but as one insider put it: “Cummings is not one for compromise”.
The source added: “There are times when Dom speaks and people do wince. But then they leave the room and come round to the idea that he has probably made the right call. But for those of us wanting to find consensus, it does sometimes feel rather uncomfortable.”
Moments of "discomfort" orchestrated by Cummings in recent weeks include him ranting at Tory rebels after 21 Tories were stripped of the whip, savaging the British justice system with the outburst: "People think we’re ****ing mad not jailing foreign criminals" and suggesting MPs are "out of touch" with the public.
One minister likened his behaviour in meeting to that of "a small child” because he constantly asks “Why?” In another move set to infuriate MPs, it is thought to have been Cummigns who advised the Prime Minister to back out of today's Liaison Committee meeting - the third time he has ducked the opportunity to appear before the Commons' scrutiny body of MPs.
Yet according to Iain Duncan Smith, who worked with Cummings when he was running for the Tory leadership and subsequently sat in many meetings with him as Mr Johnson’s leadership campaign manager - he never interrupts the Prime Minister.
“I have never seen him interrupt when Boris is speaking. Most of the time he sits in silence and only speaks when asked.”
Another Downing Street source said: “The PM stands up to Dom and often tells him: ‘No’. He’ll welcome advice and doesn’t mind hearing contradictory voices, but the boss takes all the decisions and no one else. At the moment, the public and most of the media appears to be on the PM’s side which suggests Cummings’ strategy is working. But once the papers start suggesting we’re getting our tactics wrong then it’s going to get dicey.”
Of course the ultimate test of Cummings’ strategy will be whether the Prime Minister wins the next election and by what margin. Amid increasing speculation the Government intends to call a motion of no confidence in itself in a bid to force a poll before Christmas, the man who helped leave to win the referendum is once again gambling his own political future on the country backing Boris.
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