NO REGRETS NO APOLOGY
Cummings broke stay home rule to drive virus-hit family 260 miles then enjoyed birthday trip to beauty spot to ‘test his eyesight’... all because he claims his situation was ‘exceptional’
SHAMELESS Dominic Cummings refused to quit or even apologise yesterday over breaking lockdown rules.
Boris Johnson’s key aide insisted he had no regrets after driving 260 miles to Durham while his family had Covid-19 symptoms.
And he claimed a drive he took on his wife’s birthday was to “test his eyes”.
Furious Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said: “No apology. No regret.”
WITH millions of Brits still expected to stick to the lockdown rules, Dominic Cummings yesterday gave an astonishing defence of why he chose to ignore them.
Boris Johnson’s key aide refused to quit or apologise after government scientific advisers warned his actions could cost lives as others may now flout the law.
And in a string of lame excuses as to why he drove 260 miles from London to Durham, Mr Cummings admitted he took a separate 30-mile trip on his wife’s 45th birthday to Barnard Castle in a bid to “test his eyes” to see if he could make the journey back to the capital safely the next day.
Southampton University global health expert Dr Michael Head said: “The statement from Cummings reinforced his clear disregard for public health guidance. It is poor public health practice to put your family in a car and drive 60 miles to test your eyesight.” Mr Cummings brushed away the hardship of millions who have stuck to the strict guidelines. He claimed he acted “reasonably” by taking the trip north while his wife had coronavirus symptoms, in case they might need childcare for their young son. The adviser, who was 30 minutes late for the unprecedented press conference, also insisted he had no alternative as there was no one he could “reasonably ask” for childcare near his North London home – but later admitted he never looked for any. Dr Head added: “It seems curious that apparently no one offered to help Cummings and his family during their time of illness in London, bearing in mind he is close to many of the most powerful and wealthy politicians.” Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said: “No apology. No regret. No idea what the country has been going through. It’s one rule for Boris Johnson’s closest adviser, another for everybody else.”
Colleague Angela Rayner said the hour-long press conference had been “painful to watch”.
She added: “He clearly broke the rules. The PM has failed to act in the national interest. He should have never allowed this situation with a member of his staff.”
Acting Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey urged Mr Johnson to sack Mr
Cummings. He said: “His refusal to apologise is an insult to us all. It reveals the worst of his elitist arrogance.” SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford added: “What should have been a resignation statement turned out to be a botched PR exercise that changes nothing. It is now beyond doubt Dominic Cummings broke multiple lockdown rules.
“There was no apology and no contrition for his behaviour.”
No10 had initially branded his
Barnard Castle trip – clearly a breach of lockdown rules – as “false allegations”.
Mr Johnson yesterday backed his adviser and refused to answer questions at the daily briefing about the breaches.
Mr Cummings admitted he only told the PM – who was then ill with coronavirus - after he got to Durham.
Downing Street then sat on the admission for seven weeks, until a joint investigation by the Mirror and the Guardian revealed his movements. Mr
Cummings admitted he should have made a statement about his journey to Durham on March 27 sooner.
And he revealed he had come back into No10 after seeing his journalist wife, Mary Wakefield, who was showing symptoms, potentially infecting staff.
But he insisted: “I don’t regret what I did. I think what I did was actually reasonable in these circumstances. The rules made clear that if you are dealing with small children that can be exceptional circumstances. And I think that the situation that I was in was exceptional circumstances, and the way that I dealt with it was the least risk to everybody concerned if my wife and I had both been unable to look after our four-year-old.” Of his return to No 10 after seeing his ill wife, he added: “I was involved in decisions affecting millions of people and I thought that I should try to help as much as I could do.
“I can understand some people will argue I should have stayed at home in London throughout.
“I understand these views, I know the intense hardship and sacrifice the entire country has had to go through. However, I respectfully disagree.”
Mr Cummings insisted his nieces in Durham could have looked after his son if he and his wife became too ill to care for him. In the end, the couple did not call on anyone to do that. But he denied he made a second trip back to Durham from London a week or so later.
More than 20 Tory MPs are among the growing number of people – including scientists, medics, the police and bishops – calling for him to quit.
Mr Johnson insisted he did not believe any of his staff had done anything to undermine the stay at home messaging.
But in a sign that his support was not without limit, he admitted he could not give Mr Cummings or anyone else “unconditional backing”. He added: “Do I regret what has happened? Yes, of course I do regret the confusion and the anger and the pain that people feel.”
SORRY proved to be the hardest word for arrogant Dominic Cummings as he haughtily refused to apologise for turning from rule maker to rule breaker.
His pathetic groping for loopholes to justify his reckless 260-mile drive from London to Co Durham while his wife displayed possible coronavirus symptoms, will fool nobody.
Cummings, who made an extraordinary appearance in Downing Street’s garden yesterday to give his side of the saga, broke both the rules and the spirit of the rules.
At one point he risibly maintained he drove to beautiful Barnard Castle to test his eyes. If they needed testing, he shouldn’t have been behind the wheel.
The self-pity of the Prime Minister’s chief adviser will con nobody, particularly the tens of millions who did follow the rules – as a result enduring the agony of not going to the bedside of a dying loved one or to funerals.
His behaviour was a prime example of Downing Street’s elite acting as if the rules they set for us don’t apply to them.