Boris Johnson’s top aide Cummings will not quit

By Our Reporter

Dominic Cummings, the top aide of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defied calls to resign on Monday over allegations that he broke coronavirus lockdown rules.

Cummings told reporters that he acted “reasonably and legally” when he drove across the country with his wife while she was suffering from the virus, despite official advice to stay at home.

“I have not offered to resign. No, I did not consider it,” a visibly nervous Cummings said in his first press conference on the job.

“In this very complex situation, I tried to exercise my judgement the best I could. I believe that in all circumstances I behaved reasonably and legally.”

Cummings did not apologise for his behaviour but did express regret for not asking Johnson — himself already hospitalised for COVID-19 — for permission to travel during the most restrictive phase of the lockdown.

“Arguably, this was a mistake and I understand that some will say that I should have spoken to the PM before deciding what to do,” Cummings said.

The scandal raging around his decision to drive to leave his baby son at his parents’ house while he and his wife were sick threatens to undermine Johnson in the heat of a health emergency that has claimed nearly 37,000 lives.

It is also arguably the biggest political scandal of Johnson’s one-year rule.

Politicians of all stripes have been joined by scientific advisers and even some members of the clergy in condemning Cummings for flouting the rules.

“If you give the impression there’s one rule for them and one rule for us, you fatally undermine that sense of ‘we’re all in this together’,” scientific adviser Stephen Reicher told ITV.

Johnson told the nation on Sunday that Cummings was following his paternal instincts by dropping off his baby son at his grandparents’ house while he and his wife were sick.

But the ConservativeHome website published a rolling list of members of Johnson’s Conservative party who have publicly called for Cummings to be dismissed.

It had 20 names on Monday — still too few to challenge Johnson’s 80-seat majority in parliament but growing by the day.

The Politico website noted that the list’s publication “in itself is not a great sign for the prime minister”.

Even newspapers that traditionally back Tory governments sounded a hostile note.

The Daily Mail website said the UK lockdown “was dead in the water” because Cummings was flouting its rules.