PM fights for Cummings as calls grow for aide’s sacking
●Johnson: ‘He followed instincts of every father’ ●Senior Tories demand that adviser is dismissed ●SNP accuses No 10 of ‘breathtaking arrogance’
Boris Johnson has launched a personal defence of his chief adviser in the face of growing pressure for him to be sacked for appearing to breach coronavirus lockdown rules.
The Prime Minister claimed last night that Dominic Cummings had “acted responsibly, legally and with integrity” after a controversial 260mile trip from London to Durham in March for childcare.
Conservative MPS joined with opposition parties in calling for Mr Cummings to go over the revelations. The 48-year-old claims he was seeking to self-isolate with his family while official guidelines warned against long journeys.
Further reports also suggested he took a second trip to north-east England in April, having already returned to London. Mr Cummings denied the fresh allegations and Mr Johnson announced he would be standing by him.
But last night Mr Cumming was also reported to the police over the alleged lockdown breach. Retired teacher Robin Lees, 71, reported a suspected
breach of lockdown to Durham Police, saying he believes he spotted Mr Cummings in Barnard Castle, Co Durham on 12 April.
In his report to Durham Police Mr Lees describes the possible sighting of Cummings, his wife and child, and said: “I feel that as well as an important breach of the lockdown there may also have been concerns over health protection regulations.”
Mr Johnson said he could “not mark down” Mr Cummings for the way he acted, as he led the government press conference for only the third time since being discharged from hospital on 12 April.
The PM said: “Ihave had extensive face-to-face conversations with Dominic Cummings and I have concluded that, in travelling to find the right kind of childcare, at the moment when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by coronavirus – and when he had no alternative – I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent. And I do not mark him down for that.
“Though there have been many other allegations about what happened when he was in self-isolation and thereafter, some of them palpably false, I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly and legally and with integrity and with the overwhelming aim of stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives.”
Nicola Sturgeon had earlier compared Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings’ position with that of Scotland’s former chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood, who resigned as Scotland’s chief medical officer after pictures emerged of her twice visiting her second home after restrictions had been put in place.
The First Minister tweeted: “I know it is tough to lose a trusted adviser at the height of crisis, but when it’s a choice of that or integrity of vital public health advice, the latter must come first.”
Mr Johnson last night dismissed comparisons between the two cases. “The sharp distinction is, unlike the lady you mention, Mr Cummings actually went into lockdown and went into self-isolation for 14 days or more and that is what you should do.” He insisted that Mr Cummings’ case was determined by the childcare needs of the family.
Pressure grew for the PM to dispense with the adviser he credited with helping him to win a landslide at the general election last year.
A host of Tory MPS piled in to claim the 48-year-old’s position had become “untenable”.
Over the weekend, No10 admitted Mr Cummings had driven from his London home to north-east England in March after his wife started displaying Covid-19 symptoms, fearful there would be no-one to look after his fouryear-old child if he became ill.
But according to reports, the former Vote Leave campaign co-ordinator made a second trip to Durham and was seen there on 19 April – five days after being photographed on his return to Westminster.
A second witness told the papers they saw him a week earlier, on Easter Sunday, in Barnard Castle, a town about 30 miles from Durham, during the period he was believed to be self-isolating.
The reports convinced Tory MP and former minister Steve Baker to call for Mr Cummings to be dismissed. The prominent figure in the Brexit campaign told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I’m afraid I just think this is the end of the road.”
Other senior Tories, including Peter Bone and ex-immigration minister Caroline Nokes, also spoke out against Mr Cummings.
And fellow Tory MP Craig Whittaker said: “You cannot advise the nation one thing then do the opposite.”
Mr Cummings, speaking outside his London home yesterday before travelling to see the PM at No10, denied allegations he journeyed a second time to Durham.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford accused Mr Johnson of “breathtaking arrogance.”
True leadership is not simply a test of strength. Nor, despite the importance of good judgment, is it all about getting each individual decision right.
At its most basic, good leadership is about moral authority.
This is never more true than in a national crisis in which the lives of tens of thousands of citizens are on the line.
Questions have been asked, and will continue to be asked, about the timing of the lockdown both in Scotland and across the UK.
Everyone agrees though on the value of the lockdown, which has saved countless lives.
The lockdown, a remarkable restriction on our normal everyday freedom, has been successful not because of police enforcement or the threat of fines.
It has been successful because the vast majority of us have been prepared to put our own personal interests to one side on the understanding that was necessary in order to serve a greater common good.
That kind of consensus relies in large part on leadership that the rest of us can believe sincerely shares in that common cause.
The Scottish Government, like its Westminster counterpart, has made mistakes which ultimately contributed to this crisis and in its handling of the pandemic.
However, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has maintained her moral authority – as her continuing high approval ratings in public opinion polls demonstrates – largely due to her cautious, safety first approach when so many lives are so clearly at risk.
She initially stuck by Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, Catherine Calderwood, when she broke her own lockdown regulations.
The First Minister accepted that Dr Calderwood had to go when it became clear that her actions were undermining public confidence in the lockdown and therefore putting lives at risk.
The Prime Minister now finds himself in the same position.
He has chosen to stand behind his most trusted adviser, but many questions remain unanswered.
These will not go away and the pressure will only grow, further damaging the government’s message at a time it needs to be crystal clear.
Dominic Cummings’ judgment, or otherwise, in this instance is not the issue. The issue is one of public trust.
Are we now all to understand that the rules apply to us only up to the point where our personal judgment decides they should be completely discarded?
It is clear that despite the protests of Cummings and several Cabinet ministers, the Prime Minister’s chief adviser broke the lockdown rules at least once.
Failing to recognise this leaves the impression that the rules are not that important, and, just as damagingly at this time of collective togetherness, that there is one rule for the powerful and well-connected and another for everyone else.
Cummings behaving like that is one thing. The Prime Minister accepting that is quite another.
That is why Johnson must bite the bullet and dismiss his most cherished ally.
To do otherwise appears to accept the widespread perception that the rules can be bent, but only for those closest to the seat of power.
The inevitable result is that the next time the Prime Minister asks us to follow his lead on an issue of national importance fewer people will do so.
Every day that Cummings remains in post will raise questions about his boss’s judgment, but far more important than that, it will drain his moral authority.