Durham police chief may face investigation over Cummings case

THE police chief who oversaw the Dominic Cummings case could now face an investigation over her force’s handling of the matter, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Durham police have received a number of complaints from members of the public angry at the way the investigation was dealt with.

The complaints came after the force announced that Mr Cummings might have committed a minor breach of the lockdown rules when he drove to Barnard Castle on Easter Sunday.

It is understood that some of the complaints are against Durham’s Chief Constable, Jo Farrell, who was appointed to the top job last summer.

The complaints have been passed to the force’s professional standards department and they will now be assessed before a decision is made whether to take the matters further.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) will also be informed in line with the usual process, but a spokesman for the watchdog said no referrals had yet been made.

It is not clear at this stage whether the complaints are from people angry that the police decided to investigate Mr Cummings in the first place, or whether they are from people upset at the findings of the probe and the decision not to take any further action.

A number of complaints have also been lodged against the force’s acting police and crime commissioner, Steve White, who last week wrote to Ms Farrell urging her to launch the investigation into Mr Cummings.

Durham’s police and crime panel will now assess the validity of the complaints against Mr White.

Last week, he called publicly for the force to carry out a criminal investigation into Mr Cummings, insisting it was important to maintain confidence in the police. In a letter to Ms Farrell, he said the inquiry was vital to establish the facts concerning any potential breach of the law or regulations.

On Monday, Durham Constabulary confirmed that it was investigating the matter following a series of complaints. On Thursday the force said Mr Cummings’s 50-mile round trip to Barnard Castle on Easter Sunday, which he claimed had been in order to test his eyesight, “might have been a minor breach of the regulations that would have warranted police intervention”.

The force said that it viewed the matter as minor because Mr Cummings had not breached social distancing.

Durham Constabulary said it did not intend to take any retrospective action and did not consider Mr Cummings’s decision to travel 250 miles from his home in north London to his parents’ farm in Durham to be against the rules.

The Telegraph understands about 10 complaints have been received in total.

Durham Constabulary did not respond to a request for comment.

Last night, it emerged that Theresa May had launched an attack on Mr Cummings in a statement to constituents. The former prime minister said she did not feel the adviser had abided by the “spirit” of the guidance and expressed concern that the episode was distracting from the public health effort, according to the Daily Mirror.

‘[Mr Cummings’s 50-mile round trip] might have been a minor breach of the regulations that would have warranted a police investigation’