‘SICKENING’
North East mum Rachel had to self-isolate in the same house as her vulnerable daughter – as PM lets Dominic Cummings keep his job after breaking lockdown rules she thinks it is...
SOME of the North East families most at risk from coronavirus have spoken of their “fury” at news that Boris Johnson’s senior adviser travelled from London to Durham with symptoms of the disease, as the Prime Minister yesterday refused to sack him.
Yesterday some Conservative MPs joined calls for senior government adviser Dominic Cummings to resign, after the Mirror and Guardian revealed details of his trip to the North East in March or April.
But at yesterday evening’s Downing Street briefing Mr Johnson said Mr Cummings had “acted responsibly, legally and with integrity”.
He pledged his “full support” to the aide, who insisted he had needed to bring his four-year-old son to the North East to be cared for by family, while he and his wife were unwell.
Mr Cummings has denied making a second trip to the area, after eyewitnesses later claimed to have seen him visiting Barnard Castle.
Rachel Mewes, from New Hartley, Northumberland, said Mr Cummings was “not fit to be in the position” and echoed calls for him step down or to be sacked.
Rachel’s two-year-old daughter Betsy, who has Down’s Syndrome, is extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 due to lung problems caused by her premature birth.
The family endured a “terrifying” time when Rachel developed what looked like Covid-19 symptoms, and was told to self-isolate within their home, despite Betsy’s vulnerability. Rachel asked if Betsy could be moved out of the house for her safety – but was advised by NHS 111 that it would be against the rules for anyone to move once symptoms had appeared within the household. She said she was “furious” that, by contrast, Mr Cummings was able to move to Durham while experiencing symptoms.
She said: “We were absolutely terrified. Despite this, we stepped up and followed government guidelines. I isolated as best I could. We live in a very small house with one bathroom.
“I was advised to ‘move into the spare room and use a separate bathroom’ neither of which I can do as they don’t exist. So I isolated as best I could and my partner cared for our daughter, as well as bringing me food to the bedroom door. He slept on the sofa.
“My symptoms passed and I’m fairly sure I didn’t have the virus but I still had to follow quarantine advice to protect others.
“So to hear of a government advisor breaching his own guidelines and travelling to the region I live in, bringing with him the deadly virus that could kill my daughter is sickening. As a representative of the UK government he has demonstrated what little regard he has for families like mine. He has demonstrated that he thinks he is above the law. He has demonstrated that he thinks his family is more important than mine.”
Gary McKie’s eight-year-old son Sam suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a rare genetic disorder that affects all his muscles and weakens his respiratory system. Coronavirus could put Sam at serious risk – so the entire family has been self-isolating since midMarch.
Lockdown hasn’t been easy on the North Tyneside family, who haven’t travelled past their front drive in months. Seeing people pushing lockdown rules to their limits is frustrating, the dad-oftwo said, because it puts Sam at greater risk and could mean they will have to endure strict shielding for his protection for even longer.
For a senior government adviser to make the 264-mile trip was, he said, “ridiculous”.
Gary said: “I just think it’s a disgrace, to be honest.
“He came up to a part of the country where, at that time, the R rate was really high. It’s sort of taking us back to the Tory governments of the 80s, where anything goes for them: it’s ‘do what we say, but you can’t do what we do.’
“I know he has said it was for childcare reasons, but I’m confident he could have arranged something that didn’t involve him coming all the way up to Durham, against the advice not to travel. He should resign, and if he doesn’t, he should be sacked.”
A Durham 82-year-old, who lives close to the Cummings’ home in the city and did not wish to be named, said she had been angered to hear of Mr Cummings’ visit while she and her neighbours were trying hard to stay safe.
She said: “I feel it’s very hypocritical of him, in the circumstances, to drive all this way, and to use his child as an excuse was an utterly wrong thing to do. I don’t think he has any understanding of why people follow the rules: they understand that not doing so is a danger, not just to themselves, but to other people.”
Kingston Park mum Rebecca Highton call on the government to “take ownership” of Mr Cummings’ mistake and ensure he faced consequences.
Rebecca’s three-year-old son Alfie lives with the serious condition spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, and
strict lockdown rules not only meant the family was forced to shield, but that Alfie was set to miss out on a vital surgery to protect his lungs.
Rebecca said she “couldn’t believe” a senior government adviser could “blatantly flout the rules” in this way.
The 25-year-old said: “My child was going to be unable to have a vital surgery because of this pandemic, he has had it now but only because he was seriously ill.
“And then you’ve got senior government figures who don’t think the rules apply to them. What he did definitely wasn’t necessary travel, it wasn’t his daily hour of exercise or going to the shop for essentials.
“Our family lives in the North West, and Alfie has been seriously unwell: they would have loved to travel to see him and to help us, but they knew they couldn’t do that, that they had to follow the rules to keep other people safe. A lot of people are really struggling under lockdown, really suffering, and why should he be the exception to the rule? My worry is that this will set a precedent for breaking the rules.”
A former Durham chief constable slammed Mr Cummings.
Mike Barton said Mr Cummings’ action would make his former colleagues’ jobs more difficult.
And he added: “His behaviour and his attitude since shames the Government, ministers and our country. Bearing in mind there are millions of people who all want to do their own little thing and if they all do their own little thing people will die.
“People in the North East, people in Durham, are entitled to be angry that this has happened and this is somebody who is at the heart of Government, you have got to lead by example.”