Allies Leave Johnson on Aide Who Broke Lockdown Rules

Dominic Cummings has declined to resign after driving 260 miles to parents' house
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2020 10:45 AM CDT
Johnson Allies Now Want Aide Who Broke Lockdown to Go
Dominic Cummings leaves his home in London on Sunday.   (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

One day after top government leaders backed the aide to Boris Johnson who violated pandemic lockdown rules, support in Parliament lessened. Dominic Cummings has conceded that he, with his wife and son, drove to his parents' house, 260 miles from London, in April. "He has at the very least not abided by the slogans that he has enforced on the rest of the country," said Peter Baker, a senior Conservative MP, "and that is why he should go." Cummings is the prime minister's chief adviser, but Sky News reports that Baker said he's "certainly not indispensable to Boris. No one is." Cummings declined to answer questions Sunday from reporters outside his home, but he told them Saturday that he would not be resigning, per the BBC. A van with a large video screen pulled up to the house Sunday and played a Johnson speech asking Britons to stay home during the pandemic, per Sky.

The opposition Labor Party has called for an investigation, and other Conservative MPs have called for Cummings to quit. "There cannot be one law for the prime minister's staff and another for everyone else," Roger Gale said. Caroline Nokes tweeted, "There cannot be one rule for most of us and wriggle room for others." Cummings said he made the trip because his wife had developed coronavirus symptoms, and he wanted to be near relatives in case he and his wife needed help caring for their son. A Conservative MP said that Cummings "made a decision in an emergency" and that the prime minister is satisfied with the explanation. A witness has reported seeing Cummings another time last month in Northeast England, but the government said Cummings has denied making a second trip. (More Boris Johnson stories.)

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