No 10 comes out f ighting as Cummings accused of second lockdown breach
Claim aide strolled with wife in County Durham bluebell wood
DOWNING STREET was last night furiously denying claims that Boris Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings breached lockdown rules a second time – after he recovered from coronavirus.
Cummings has come under fire after travelling to Durham in March, saying he went to isolate at his parents’ home because both he and his wife were too ill to look after their four-year-old son.
But now it is claimed that not only did Cummings go out to visit a town 30 miles away from Durham on April 12 during that stay, but he was allegedly spotted again a week later, on April 19, when he was heard to comment on some ‘lovely’ bluebells during a morning stroll.
This alleged visit came days after Cummings had been photographed in London having made a full recovery.
At the time, with the country at the peak of the pandemic, the Government was insisting that people should be staying at home and only leaving for essential travel.
If true, the allegations – made by The Sunday Mirror and The Observer – shatter the credibility of Cummings’s original justification for visiting his parents.
He has said he was doing the ‘right thing’ by seeking the support of his family because he and his wife were too ill to look after their four-year-old son.
A No 10 spokesman said last night: ‘Yesterday the Mirror and Guardian wrote inaccurate stories about Mr Cummings. Today they are writing more inaccurate stories including claims that Mr Cummings returned to Durham after returning to work in Downing Street on 14 April.
‘We will not waste our time answering a stream of false allegations about Mr Cummings from campaigning newspapers.’
It’s claimed that Cummings made a trip out from Durham to Barnard Castle – 30 miles away – on Easter Day. Robin Lees, 70, a retired chemistry teacher from the town, said he saw Mr Cummings and his family walking by the Tees before getting into a car around lunch time on April 12. Mr Lees said: ‘I was a bit gobsmacked to see him, because I know what he looks like. And the rest of the family seemed to match – a wife and child. I was pretty convinced it was him and it didn’t seem right because I assumed he would be in London.’
He added: ‘I went home and told my wife. We thought he must be in London. I searched up the number plate later that day and my computer search history shows that.’
Asked if he thought Cummings should resign, Mr Lees said: ‘Of course he should.
‘[Catherine] Calderwood [Scotland’s former chief medical officer] resigned after being stupid by visiting her second home. [Government scientific adviser Prof Neil] Ferguson didn’t even go anywhere, it was his mistress, and he had to resign too.
‘They didn’t do anything nearly as irresponsible as Cummings. You don’t take the virus from one part of the country to another.
‘It just beggars belief to think you could actually drive when the advice was stay home, save lives. It couldn’t have been clearer.’
When Cummings was apparently recognised a second time on
April 19 he was wearing his trademark beanie hat, and was heard commenting on the ‘lovely’ bluebells were during an early morning Sunday stroll with his wife Mary Wakefield.
The second eyewitness, who declined to be named, said: ‘We were shocked and surprised to see him because the last time we did was earlier in the week in Downing Street.’
Sources close to Mr Cummings claimed there is ‘zero chance’ of him resigning.
Durham Police confirmed yesterday that they had telephoned Mr Cummings’s family in Durham on Tuesday March 31 after ‘being made aware’ that he was there.
They deemed that no further action was required but said they provided advice on ‘security issues’.
‘It beggars belief, advice couldn’t be clearer’