Hoaxer staged ‘sightings’ of Cummings for comedy value
A MAN who claimed to have seen Dominic Cummings in Durham was a hoaxer who did it for “comedy value”, it has emerged.
Another person, who spoke about the Prime Minister’s adviser, admitted making his own long journey during the virus crisis.
A Labour Remainer peer is believed to have tipped off colleagues that Mr Cummings was in Durham during lockdown.
Details of the people behind the accusations that caused a political firestorm surfaced amid claims that Boris Johnson has put his adviser on notice that he “will not tolerate” another embarrassment.
The Prime Minister is said to have made it “absolutely clear” that Mr Cummings, must not become the story again and he has been “firmly put in his place”.
A source said: “If it happens again, he’s out.”
Mr Cummings kept his job after setting out his reason for taking his family on a 260-mile journey to Durham, to stay in a cottage on his parents’ farm, soon after the country was told to stay at home.
The aide insisted he took reasonable and legal steps to look after his four-year-old son when he feared he and his wife Mary may become too ill to care for him.
Former Durham MP Hilary Armstrong, now a peer, is said to have tipped off other peers and an MP that Mr Cummings was in the area.
The story was fuelled by public eye-witness claims to bolster accounts.
But Tim Matthews, who told how he had seen Mr Cummings on a second trip to Durham, has now admitted he doctored details on a mobile phone running app that tracks routes and times to make it look as if he had seen the aide on April 19, five days after he had returned to London.
He said: “I made that up afterwards, a few days ago. I modified it for a little bit of comedy value.
“The only thing that I can definitively say is that at some point during the last few months when I was out running, I had occasion to think ‘That’s Dominic Cummings’.”
Unwell
“What I can’t tell you is any sort of timeframe other than in the last few months.”
Retired teacher Robin Lees, who reported Mr Cummings to the police, admitted driving 250 miles to collect his daughter during the coronavirus crisis but insisted he did not break lockdown rules. He drove from Durham to Ascot, Berkshire, but insisted that he was acting within the regulations at the time. Dominic Raab admitted that while he stood in for the Prime Minister, he did not know the whereabouts of Mr Cummings. The Foreign Secretary said: “I knew Dom was unwell… but I wasn’t focused on his movements.”