PM Johnson backs top aide who traveled while infected
LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday he wouldn’t fire his chief aide for allegedly violating the national lockdown rules that he helped to create by driving the length of England to his parents’ house while he was infected with the coronavirus.
Defying a growing clamor from public and politicians, Johnson said Dominic Cummings had acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity” when he drove 250 miles from London to Durham, in northeast England, with his wife and son at the end of March.
Britain’s lockdown, which began March 23, stipulated that people should remain at their primary residence, leaving only for essential local errands and exercise. Anyone with coronavirus symptoms was told to isolate themselves.
Cummings says he traveled to Durham to be near extended family because his wife was showing COVID-19 symptoms. He correctly thought he was also infected and wanted to ensure that his 4-year-old son was looked after.
Johnson told a news conference that Cummings had “followed the instincts of every father and every parent.”
He said Cummings, his wife and son followed the rules by self-isolating for 14 days once they reached Durham.
But critics expressed outrage that Cummings had broken strict rules that for two months have prevented Britons from visiting elderly relatives, comforting dying friends or even attending the funerals of loved ones.
The opposition Labour Party has called for an investigation.
Labour leader Keir
Starmer said Johnson’s defense of Cummings was “an insult to sacrifices made by the British people.”
Former Labour lawmaker Helen Goodman, whose father died in a nursing home during the outbreak, said Cummings’ behavior was “repellent.”
Johnson, speaking inside the prime minister’s 10 Downing St. residence, said, “I can totally get why people might feel so confused and so offended by the idea that it was one thing for the people here and one thing for others.”
But he said Cummings’ “particular child care needs” left him “no alternative” but to make the trip.
Government ministers have denied a claim that Cummings was spotted again in Durham on April 19, after he had recovered and returned to work in London.
But they have not confirmed or denied report that Cummings visited a scenic area 30 miles from Durham on April 12.
Cummings is a key but contentious figure in Johnson’s administration. A self-styled political disrupter who disdains the media and civil service, he was one of the architects of the successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union, and he orchestrated the Conservatives’ decisive election victory in December.
The coronavirus cut a swath through the top ranks of Britain’s government in March and April, infecting people including Cummings, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Johnson, who has said that the medical staff at a London hospital saved his life.
Despite the government’s support for Cummings, several lawmakers from Johnson’s Conservative Party joined the opposition in calling for the aide to be ousted.
“Dominic Cummings has a track record of believing that the rules don’t apply to him and treating the scrutiny that should come to anyone in a position of authority with contempt,” tweeted Conservative lawmaker Damian Collins. “The government would be better without him.”
Cummings is one of several senior U.K. officials to be accused of flouting the lockdown rules.
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson stepped down as government scientific adviser this month after a newspaper disclosed that his girlfriend had crossed London to stay with him during the lockdown. In April, Catherine Calderwood resigned as Scotland’s chief medical officer after twice traveling from Edinburgh to her second home.