Scientists, bishops, Rowling pan UK PM for backing aide
JK Rowling, bishops and top scientists on a key government committee joined millions across the UK to express fury at Prime Minister Boris Johnson defending his chief adviser Dominic Cummings, who had breached lockdown rules in March.
Cummings, who has been close to Johnson since the successful ‘Vote Leave’ campaign in the 2016 EU referendum, had travelled to Durham with his family when the official advice followed by Britons was to stay home, prompting accusations that there is one rule for those in power and another for others.
As the controversy swept the country, including in usually Conservative supporting sections and tabloids, Johnson insisted on Sunday evening that Cummings had done no wrong, defying many who sought the top aide’s resignation.
More than 10 bishops said Johnson’s defence of Cummings was “risible”, that he had “no respect for the people”, “lacked integrity”, and risked undermining the trust of the public. Pete Broadbent, the bishop of Willesden, tweeted, “Johnson has now gone the full Trump.”
As police chiefs said it would now be difficult to enforce curbs, at least three experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies influencing government moves on the coronavirus pandemic deplored Johnson’s remarks: Stephen Reicher, Robert West and Susan Michie.
Reicher said, “If you give the impression there’s one rule for them and one rule for us, you fatally undermine the sense of ‘we’re all in this together’.”
Closely following the proceedings, writer Rowling tweeted, “Watching Johnson, This is despicable... Johnson might as well had shambled into shot, give us all the finger and walked off again.”
“I can’t remember a clearer demonstration of contempt for the people from a sitting Prime Minister. Johnson might as well had shambled into shot, give us all the finger and walked off again”, she added.
Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon added: “I fear, and I say this with a heavy heart, Boris Johnson is putting his political interest ahead of the public interest. And when trust in a public health message and public health advice is as important as it is right now the consequences of that could be serious”.
Britain’s official coronavirus death toll stands at 36,793, the second-highest confirmed total in the world after the United States.