Unanswered questions over lockdown trip to Durham

Dominic Cummings aimed to clear up confusion over his visit to the North East and ministers hoped to draw a line under it – but many thorny issues remain

MOMENTS after Dominic Cummings finished his press conference in the Downing Street Rose Garden, ministers said it was time to draw a line under the prickly issue once and for all.

At the same time, questions were raised over parts of the aide’s account – which were not helped by attempts by the Government to explain Mr Cummings’s actions yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, it emerged Durham Police have started their investigation into Mr Cummings’s alleged breach of lockdown rules.

Officers interviewed a witness and reportedly have access to number plate recognition software, which could track the movement of the aide’s car when he travelled to Durham, according to the Mirror and The Guardian.

With the focus still firmly on Mr Cummings’s decision to leave London to self-isolate in his parents’ home, gaps in his statement remain to be clarified.

Trip to Barnard Castle

Mr Cummings said he drove 60 miles from Durham to Barnard Castle and back on Sunday April 12 to “test his eyesight” before making the trip to London. It was the 15th day since he first developed coronavirus symptoms but he said his vision had been “a bit weird”.

It was his wife’s birthday and the couple, along with their young son, walked to a riverbank on the outskirts of the market town where Mr Cummings said he “felt a bit sick” and then “felt better”.

Government guidance over the Easter weekend was still to stay at home, with exceptions made for buying essentials, going to work if not possible from home and exercising.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said that the National Police Chiefs Council had relaxed the rules around driving “a reasonable distance to exercise”, which they had. At no point did Mr Cummings say that he had stopped to exercise.

Not only does this appear to be a breach of the rules, but Mr Cummings may have also broken the Highway Code, said Sir Peter Fahy, the former Greater Manchester Police chief constable, who told BBC Radio 4: “It’s not the way to test your eyesight, and put potentially other people in danger.”

John Apter, the chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, wrote on Twitter: “If you’re feeling unwell and your eyesight may be impaired do not drive your vehicle to test your ability to drive.”

On the way back to Durham, the family made another stop near some woodland, where his son went to the toilet and then “played for a little bit”.

Wife’s symptoms

On Monday, Mr Cummings said he went back into 10 Downing Street hours after visiting his wife, Mary Wakefield, who had felt “badly ill”.

That evening Mr Cummings said of his wife: “She was ill. She might have Covid though she did not have a cough or a fever” when describing his reason for then driving his family to Durham.

His statement led to questions over whether Mr Cummings broke guidelines by returning to work that day.

Yesterday, Michael Gove insisted this was not the case, because Ms Wakefield did not have the two main coronavirus symptoms.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Gove said: “It is the case that while Mary was ill, it was not the case she had Covid-19 symptoms. She did not have fever or persistent cough. The guidance was clear that if people are displaying symptoms then the household should isolate.”

Driving back to London

Mr Cummings said he drove to Barnard Castle on Easter Sunday to “test his eyesight” before deciding to make the 260-mile drive to London.

Asked whether he should have made the journey without the test run, he said: “I mean, perhaps you’re right and we should just have cracked on and tried to do the whole trip.”

Questions were raised over why Ms Wakefield could not drive the family back to London. Past articles written by Ms Wakefield have emerged, which showed she can drive.

Ambulance

During the night of Thursday April 2, Mr Cummings said his child woke up, vomited and had a bad fever.

The couple took medical advice and called 999. An ambulance arrived to take the young boy to hospital, but Mr Cummings said he was too ill to travel and “could barely stand up”.

Mr Cummings’s son stayed the night in the hospital with his mother, but was told he could return home the following morning.

Both his wife and son had coronavirus symptoms but it is not clear if ambulance and hospital staff knew this when they arrived.

A spokesman for the North East Ambulance Service said: “We do not comment on individual cases.

“Our crews are provided with personal protective equipment when responding to 999 calls. When a patient with suspected Covid-19 has been inside a vehicle, our crews will deep clean the ambulance thoroughly.

“Upon arrival at hospital, patients will be assessed by hospital staff to determine where they should be taken.”

A few days later the hospital called the family to say the boy had tested negative for Covid-19.

Past account of isolation

On April 23, Ms Wakefield wrote a lengthy piece in The Spectator magazine describing the period when she and her husband were self-isolating. Mr Cummings also wrote a piece in the same edition about his experiences.

Neither mentioned driving to Durham or the trip to Barnard Castle.

Ms Wakefield’s account described how ill Mr Cummings was.

She wrote: “Dom couldn’t get out of bed. Day in, day out for 10 days he lay ‘doggo’ with a high fever and spasms that made the muscles lump and twitch in his legs. He could breathe, but only in a limited, shallow way.”

However, this account appears at odds with Mr Cummings’s statement, in which he said he “drove to the hospital, picked him up, then returned home” five days after he became ill.

‘It’s not the way to test your eyesight, and put potentially other people in danger’