Dominic Cummings couldn't be happier – he is reshaping the Tories and the only cost might be the keys to No 10

The Conservative Party is no longer open to europhiles or moderates. It has planted its flag firmly in the sand as the marker for a hard-right horizon

Last night’s drama in the corridors of the Palace of Westminster will go down as a particularly infamous event. Not since John Major’s days has a government removed the whip from MPs over a vote on Europe, and back then they at least limited it to one. Last night, 21 men and women’s careers in the Tory party were brought to an abrupt end.

But that, perhaps, wasn’t the most telling part of the evening. One anecdote doing the rounds this morning is the story of how, late on, Jeremy Corbyn was challenged by an excitable bystander in Portcullis House, who shouted at him “Come on Jeremy, let’s do this election, don’t be scared!’

There was no aggression in the man’s voice or demeanor; The Times’ Tim Shipman, in fact, relays that he was positively boisterous, in good spirits. Which, given Dominic Cummings’ government had just lost its majority and a crucial vote, is all the more peculiar of him.

But for Cummings, this is all part of the plan. Not a grand strategy with one preordained Brexit outcome, as many like to think. But a broad plan with multiple possible outcomes which stretch beyond leaving the EU, all of which work in his favour.

Cummings, you see, does not like the Tory party. Perhaps that’s why he felt so bold as to start talking to the leader of the opposition – on this, at least, they are kindred spirits. He isn’t Boris Johnson’s spin doctor because of any affinity for the man, or those he represents. He has no time for Tory grandees and entitlement.

For Cummings and those he has brought on board to steady the Brexit ship, the vote to leave the EU was about more than rule from Brussels. They understand that the problem in British politics is not Brussels, but the Tories themselves.

They understand that the party, the most electorally successful in the world, which Peter Hitchens has described as existing purely to keep power “for the sons of gentlemen”, rather than representing people, needs to be reformed, preferably completely rebuilt from the ground up. It is an attitude that Corbynistas share about their own party, after decades under the thumb of Blairism.

Indeed, it was an accusation often levelled at Corbyn and his companions that they cared rather more about root-and-branch reform and control of the party than they did about governing. The way that concerted efforts were made, repeatedly, to deselect, bully and isolate MPs, it was said, would cost Labour the support and goodwill, not to mention the numbers, needed to form a majority.

The Tory party can’t completely change its nature overnight. Where Labour harries those it wants gone, the Tories use the knife. It’s quicker. But never have they done so on such a scale before. Two former chancellors, several former ministers, even Churchill’s grandson (which for many conservatives was, for some reason, an achievement) have gone. With them will go votes, seats and support. And Cummings is jumping around Portcullis House delighted.

The MPs that have gone, and several more who will almost certainly follow, may well have been doing what they believed to be right. But to many prospective voters, they represented everything that they disliked about the party and Westminster more broadly.

They were entitled, they were arrogant, and, whatever your thoughts on Brexit, they were elected as members of a party that pledged to see it through, but who used their positions to push a Bill that would prevent it.

The message, now, has been made very clear. The Conservative Party is no longer open to europhiles or moderates. It has planted its flag firmly in the sand as the marker for a hard-right horizon. This new leadership is gambling on permanently shifting political faultlines to see it back into power when that election comes — but even if it fails, they will have taken back control of the party, if nothing else, and that will have been worth it all.