Police rule Cummings did commit ‘minor breach’... case now closed
DOMINIC Cummings might have committed a “minor breach” of the lockdown rules he helped create, police said yesterday.
Had officers stopped Boris Johnson’s top aide on his drive to Castle Barnard they would have advised him to go back to his parents’ home, Durham Constabulary said.
The force said it would not be taking any action and Downing Street said the Prime Minister now “regards this issue as closed”.
MPs of all parties – including about 40 Tories – called for Mr Cummings to resign or be fired after Mr Johnson’s strategy chief made the 26-mile trip with his wife Mary Wakefield and their son, four, on Easter Sunday.
Mr Cummings, 48, said he was checking he was fit to drive after his eyesight was affected by Covid-19, before returning to London.
He also said he acted “lawfully and reasonably” after driving
260 miles from London to his father’s Co Durham farm to self-isolate.
Police do not believe Mr Cummings committed an offence by staying at the farm but were concerned with breaches of regulations, not Government guidance to stay at home.
After examining the Barnard Castle journey the force said “there might have been a minor breach of the regulations that would have warranted police intervention”.
The statement said officers “would have likely advised Mr Cummings to return to the address in Durham, providing advice on the dangers of travelling during the pandemic crisis”. It said: “Had this advice been accepted by Mr Cummings no enforcement action would have been taken.” Despite fresh calls for Mr Cummings to go a No 10 spokesman said yesterday: “The police have made clear they are taking no action against Mr Cummings over his self-isolation and that going to Durham did not breach the regulations.”
At yesterday’s Downing Street briefing Mr Johnson said he intended to “draw a line” under the controversy and would not allow advisers Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance to answer questions on the row to protect them from a “political argument”.
But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Boris Johnson should have drawn a line under the Dominic Cummings saga but was too weak to act.
“The public have sacrificed so much for the health of our nation which he’s now undermined.
“And sent a message that there’s one rule for them and another for the British people.”
Shadow home secretary Nick
Thomas-Symonds said: “The police have confirmed what we all knew, that Dominic Cummings broke the rules he helped to write.”
Durham’s former chief constable Mike Barton said he believed the force used the word “might” on Mr Cummings breaking the regulations as they could not be seen to be acting as judge and jury.
Raj Chada, a partner at legal firm Hodge Jones & Allen, said: “I interpret this statement as them saying that there is enough evidence to say that he breached the rules – but ultimately for a court to decide – but that it is not in the public interest to prosecute for the reasons that they say.”