Contract for Friends of Dominic Cummings ‘Unlawful’: Judge The UK High Court ruled on Wednesday that the government acted unlawfully when it gave a contract to a company run by friends of Dominic Cummings, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser. The Good Law Project, a campaign group, had taken legal action against Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove over the decision to pay more than £500,000 ($700,000) of taxpayers’ money to market research firm Public First. Michael Gove arrives at Downing Street in London on Sept. 8, 2020. (Leon Neal/Getty Images) The group claimed that Dominic Cummings, who was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street at the time, wanted focus group and communications support services work to be given to the company, whose bosses were his friends.