MPS call for Cummings’ sacking

TORY MPS STAGED an extraordinary public revolt yesterday to demand that the Prime Minister sack his most senior aide.

In the biggest open rebellion of Boris Johnson’s premiership, a dozen defied party whips and called for Dominic Cummings’ departure from Downing Street.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker was the first to break ranks as he toured the TV studios and said that Cummings “must go” for driving 420km from London to County Durham during the lockdown.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge programme that Cummings “holds in contempt any effort to hold him accountable to others’ and that no-one is indispensable”.

North Dorset MP Simon Hoare became the second Tory MP to call for Cummings’ departure, saying he was ‘wounding’ the government.

Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairperson of the Commons education committee, said the prime minister’s aide should “face the consequences of breaking the law”.

In a statement on his Facebook page, the MP for Harlow said: “I would first like to make it clear to residents that I regret writing the tweet yesterday in the way I did about the Number 10 political adviser and his movements.

“I am really sorry for it. I do not support or condone anyone who has broken the law or regulations”

Sir Roger Gale, the Conservative MP for North Thanet, tweeted: “While as a father and as a grandfather I fully appreciate Mr Cummings’ desire to protect his child, there cannot be one law for the prime minister’s staff and another for everyone else. He has sent out completely the wrong message and his position is no longer tenable.”

At an extraordinary press briefing, Johnson defended his aide and said he had concluded that Cummings had “no alternative” but to travel to the North East for childcare “when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by coronavirus”.

He said: “In every respect, he has acted responsibly, legally and with integrity.”