‘What planet are they on?’

No respite for U.K.’s Johnson and aide

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced mutiny in his party and fury across Britain on Monday for refusing to sack his closest aide Dominic Cummings, accused of flouting the coronavirus lockdown by driving 250 miles from London.

Defending one of Britain’s most powerful men, Johnson said at the weekend Cummings acted “responsibly and legally and with integrity” when he travelled in March from London to Durham in northern England with his son and his wife, who was ill with COVID-19 symptoms.

Many believe that was hypocritical given the government’s mantra at the time that everyone should stay at home. Those in a household where anyone has symptoms are supposed to self-isolate at home for 14 days.

“What planet are they on?” asked a front page headline in the Daily Mail, an influential right-wing paper usually supportive of Johnson.

Cummings was due to make a public statement and to answer questions later on Monday, ITV and Sky News reported. A Downing Street spokeswoman declined to comment.

With a death toll around 43,000, Britain is the worsthit country in Europe and the government was already under pressure over its handling of the pandemic.

Scientists and lawmakers said the Cummings furore would make it harder to ensure the public kept complying with official social distancing guidance.

“Boris Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control COVID-19,” said behavioural scientist Stephen Reicher, one of a panel that advises the government.

About 20 Conservative lawmakers defied Johnson by calling publicly for Cummings to quit or be sacked. They and others reported being inundated with mail from constituents who had followed the guidance and now felt there was one rule for people close to Johnson and another for everyone else.

“The government should recognise what families have gone through and what people are thinking and saying. It is thus important that Dominic Cummings should now stand down,” said lawmaker Peter Aldous on Twitter.