. . . AS LOVER OF ITS MOST FAMOUS SON, PROF LOCKDOWN, IS SEEN OUT IN PUBLIC
THE last time Antonia Staats travelled any distance during lockdown, i t was to cycle across London to ‘illegally’ call on her lover, Professor Neil Ferguson.
But yesterday, seen in public for the first time since their tendresse was revealed, the married motherof- two was on a decidedly less thrilling mission – to buy pot plants and compost at a garden centre.
At least this time it had the advantage of being state- sanctioned. The German- born campaigner, 38, was pictured – car key in her mouth – on her return to the £2 million home she shares with her academic husband, Dr Christopher Lucas, in South West
London. Garden centres have become the first businesses allowed to reopen to the public since the Government shut down non-essential shops.
Prof Ferguson, 51, allowed Ms Staats to visit him at home during the lockdown on at least two occasions last month while lecturing the public on the need for strict social distancing.
Flouting lockdown rules can be punished with a fine, or even arrest. However, while Scotland Yard criticised Prof Ferguson’s behaviour as ‘ disappointing’, a spokesman said he had ‘ taken responsibility’ by standing down from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, which is advising Ministers on the pandemic.
Ms Staats grew up in Isny im Allgau in southern Germany, went to university in Berlin and came to London to obtain a masters in Asian politics from the SOAS, where her husband works. Ms Staats herself works for Avaaz, a global online activist network.
Avaaz – meaning ‘voice’ in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages – says its mission is to ‘close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want’. Two weeks before Britain was quarantined, she and her colleagues had their own message for the public: ‘Stay at home.’ Everyone, the group declared, should ‘avoid unnecessary close contact’.
Two visits as he lectured us on social distancing