It has fatally undermined trust - Labour

The Peterborough Labour Party has strongly criticised Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings for his trip to County Durham during the coronavirus lockdown and claimed he has “fatally undermined trust in the Government”.

Mr Cummings has been in the spotlight after the trip with his wife and young son in March.

On Monday he insisted he had not broken the lockdown rules and declined to apologise, insisting he travelled for childcare reasons.

The Peterborough Labour Party said it has “first-hand knowledge of the sacrifices that families have been making in order to adhere to lockdown rules”.

Leader of its city council group Cllr Shaz Nawaz said:

“The people of Peterborough have made enormous efforts for the sake of public health.

“There have been loved ones who died without their family members around them.

“Those with challenging childcare circumstances have adapted rather than bent or even broken the rules.

“The exceptions on lockdown rules were intended to cover those fleeing domestic abuse, not circumstances such as those Mr Cummings experienced.

“Mr Cummings’ lack of judgement was even more in evidence when he went into work despite living in a household in which there was a possible case of the Covid-19.

“Also, the idea that Mr Cummings needed to embark a 60 mile drive on his wife’s birthday to a tourist destination in order to test his eyesight doesn’t hold water.

“We believe that this episode has fatally undermined trust in the Government just when we need it most.

“The Government should do what it can in order to restore confidence; our MP should be representing us and demanding the same.”

Shaz Nawaz