Which of Boris Johnson's advisers have quit Number 10?

Boris Johnson’s inner circle has been rocked by a host of resignations after five advisers quit Downing Street within less than 24 hours.

But who are they and what does their departure mean for the prime minister?

Munira Mirza

Boris Johnson’s long-term ally Munira Mirza was the first to quit on Thursday in outrage over his “inappropriate and partisan” slur involving Jimmy Savile.

Ms Mirza first worked for the Prime Minister at least 13 years ago, but her background is not one that would traditionally be seen to lead to Conservatism. She is the youngest daughter of Pakistani immigrants, her father a factory worker and her mother a housewife and Urdu teacher.

Ms Mirza grew up in Oldham and attended state schools before becoming the only student at her sixth form to win a place at Oxford.

It was during her study at Mansfield College that she joined the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), contributing to its magazine Living Marxism.

She went on to study for a PhD in sociology at the University of Kent under Professor Frank Furedi, who co-founded the RCP, which had then dissolved.

She had various jobs in the culture and charity sectors, including at the Royal Society of Arts, the Policy Exchange think tank, and the Tate, before being made arts adviser to Mr Johnson, aged 30, when he was elected as Mayor of London in 2008.

During Mr Johnson’s time at City Hall, she was promoted, in 2012, to the deputy mayor for education and culture, and was described by his former head of communications at City Hall Guto Harri as “the perfect counter to those critics who suspected the worst of Boris”.

Ms Mirza is reported to have been a supporter of Brexit far before Mr Johnson, and once joined a protest against a ban on drinking on the London Underground which involved riding around the Circle Line while day drinking, in an objection to the state dictating such a move.

In 2018, when the Prime Minister’s comments about women in burkas hit the headlines, Ms Mirza – a Muslim – launched a passionate defence of him in the media.

Ms Mirza reportedly helped write the manifesto that got Mr Johnson to No 10. Once he became Prime Minister, she was brought in immediately as one of his inner circle.

Ms Mirza has mainly stayed out of the limelight, until she was revealed as playing a major role in the setting up of the PM’s commission on racial disparity in 2020, following the Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Critics said she was the wrong person for the job as she had previously questioned the existence of institutional racism and hit out at a “culture of grievance” among anti-racism campaigners.

But Mr Johnson defended her in the Commons as “a brilliant thinker about these issues”.

In a profile of Ms Mirza and her husband Dougie Smith – also a powerful force in the Tory party – The Daily Telegraph reported how she had, as recently as December 2018, described herself as “left-wing”.

Ms Mirza was listed by Mr Johnson in 2020 as one of the top five women who had inspired him - alongside his grandmother, campaigner Malala Yousafzai, queen of the British Iceni tribe Boudicca, and singer/songwriter Kate Bush.

Of Ms Mirza he said: “Munira is capable of being hip, cool, groovy and generally on trend.”

Jack Doyle Jack Doyle resigned mere hours after Munira Mirza, becoming the second senior member of Downing Street staff to quit.

The now-former director of communications at No 10 was previously a journalist, most recently for the Daily Mail where he was associate editor (politics) before his move to Downing Street in 2020.

Mr Doyle was at the Mail for 10 years, before which he worked for the Press Association as home affairs correspondent.

He started in Downing Street as press secretary before becoming deputy director of communications and finally bagging the top job.

Mr Doyle, a policeman’s son, had been thrust into the limelight in recent weeks amid allegations he was at two Covid restriction-busting gatherings which are now under investigation by police.

He became director of communications after the departure of James Slack – now the deputy editor-in-chief at The Sun – who has also been caught up in the partygate saga over a leaving do held for him in No 10 the night before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, for which he has apologised.

It was reported Mr Doyle had offered the PM his resignation over the gatherings but that Mr Johnson had refused to accept it. Downing Street denied Mr Doyle offered to quit, and said that the Prime Minister had “full confidence” in him.

Mr Doyle was reported to have vetoed plans for the daily briefings held with Westminster journalists to be televised.

The sessions would have been fronted by the Prime Minister’s former press secretary Allegra Stratton, who also resigned as part of the allegations of parties across No 10 and Whitehall.

Mr Doyle is reported to have told staff it was always his intention to step down after two years but his resignation comes as Mr Johnson is fighting to save his premiership.

Martin Reynolds

Martin Reynolds, Boris Johnson’s principal private secretary, offered his resignation on Thursday alongside Downing Street chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, hours after policy aide Munira Mirza and director of communications Jack Doyle both quit.

He is one of the most senior officials in No 10 but had largely avoided the limelight until the emergence of his email inviting colleagues to “socially-distanced drinks” during England’s first coronavirus lockdown.

The Cambridge graduate was a City lawyer before serving in a range of Foreign Office roles in Whitehall, South Africa and Brussels, and it is understood he will return to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office once a replacement principal private secretary is found for the PM.

He served as the UK’s ambassador to Libya before being appointed to the role at the heart of No 10 in October 2019.

Mr Johnson’s former adviser Dominic Cummings previously said the influence wielded by the principal private secretary within Downing Street was not widely appreciated.

“The PPS exercises far more influence and actual power over many issues than Cabinet ministers,” Mr Cummings said.

“He can nudge policy, he can nudge vital appointments (real power). He can and does walk into the PM’s office and exclude all political people ‘on security grounds’.”

A leaked photograph of the Prime Minister and officials drinking in the No 10 garden on May 15 2020 – five days before the “bring your own booze” event that Mr Reynolds invited colleagues to – showed the PPS sitting at the same table as Mr Johnson.

Mr Cummings used a blog in January to defend the May 15 gathering – where he was pictured at the same table as Mr Reynolds, the Prime Minister and Carrie Johnson.

However, he said a “senior No10 official” invited people to “socially-distanced drinks” in the garden on May 20 – an apparent reference to the email sent by Mr Reynolds.

Mr Cummings said that he and “at least one other” special adviser warned “this seemed to be against the rules and should not happen”.

“In my opinion the official who organised this should anyway have been removed that summer because of his failures over Covid,” Mr Cummings added.

“I said this repeatedly to the PM. The PM rejected my argument.”

Dan Rosenfield No 10 chief of staff Dan Rosenfield was the last to resign on Thursday, the day of turmoil for Boris Johnson. Former Treasury aide Mr Rosenfield had been brought in to No 10 at the beginning of last year to steady the ship following the double resignation months earlier of Dominic Cummings, the former de facto chief of staff, and Lee Cain, the ex-communications director.

Mr Rosenfield attended Manchester Grammar School where he completed his A-Levels before spending a year in Israel on a kibbutz. He later attended University College London, straight after which he went on to work at HM Treasury for 11 years. During his time there, he was partly responsible for creating a budget for the 2012 London Olympics. He also worked as principal private secretary to Chancellors Alistair Darling and George Osborne during the financial crisis and its aftermath. In 2011, Mr Rosenfield left politics and public service to work in investment banking. He then became a partner at a corporate strategy advisory firm in 2016. In the same year, he became Chair of Trustees of World Jewish Relief, before he stepped down in January 2021 to take up his Downing Street appointment.

In December 2021, The Times reported that Mr Rosenfield had attended a Christmas party in the office of Simon Case, the head of the Civil Service, in December 2020 during Covid restrictions. Downing Street denied these allegations. He was also embroiled in another controversy when it had been reported in January 2022 that he attended a cricket game three days before the Fall of Kabul, over which the government was criticised for it’s poor handling. Mr Rosenfield’s father-in-law is Alex Brummer, a journalist and editor for the Daily Mail.

Elena Narozanski

The PM's former special adviser on women and equalities followed the other four out the door as she handed in her resignation on Friday morning.

She was a special adviser to Michael Gove between 2010 and 2011 when he was education secretary - she's also a former speechwriter for the Department for Education.

Ms Narozanski, who is a amateur boxer in her spare time, was has also previously worked for Theresa May.