Dominic Cummings has refused to resign or apologise for driving 264 miles to Durham to isolate on his parents’ property while his wife was sick with suspected coronavirus. In an unprecedented move for a senior political adviser, Cummings addressed criticism of his actions from the rose garden of No 10 Downing Street on Monday afternoon, following an outpouring of anger among the public, MPs, bishops, police, scientists and medics. In a lengthy statement, Boris Johnson’s chief aide confirmed he had driven to Durham while his wife was unwell and that he had also taken a trip 30 miles away from his parents’ house to Barnard Castle while non-essential travel was banned. His movements during the end of March and early April were first disclosed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and Mirror.
“The rules make clear that when dealing with small children that can be exceptional circumstances and I think that was exceptional circumstances,” Cummings said. Asked why he was not resigning, he said: “There is understandable anger but a lot of that anger is based on reports in the media that have not been true. It’s extremely regrettable that the media were told some of these things were wrong and reported them anyway.” He later added: “I have not offered to resign … I have not considered it.”
The senior adviser also revealed that his son had needed to go to hospital in Durham while they were staying at a separate property on his parents’ farm. The child was taken to hospital by ambulance, along with his wife, and stayed overnight, before Cummings left isolation the next day to pick up his wife and child from the hospital. His son later tested negative for coronavirus. Cummings said he had no physical contact with his parents but they had “shouted conversations at a distance” and that he made the trip to Barnard Castle because he was trying to work out if he was fit enough and his eyesight was good enough to drive back to London that week.
But he admitted getting out of the car in Barnard Castle and sitting by a river for 15 minutes at a time when the guidelines said non-essential travel was banned and people should only be leaving the house for exercise, essential shopping and picking up medication. He said the trip to Durham was not mentioned in articles for the Spectator written by him and his wife about their lockdown experience because he was worried about his security. Cummings also said he had not told the prime minister where he was going as Johnson had “a million things on his plate” and acknowledged this could have been a mistake.
The prime minister has stood by his senior aide, giving a defiant press conference on Sunday. Johnson claimed his adviser had acted “responsibly, legally, and with integrity” and had followed his instincts as a father by travelling to seek possible backup childcare for his four-year-old son. However, more than 20 Conservative MPs have called for him to resign for breaking the lockdown, including the former ministers Tim Loughton and Steve Baker. Other Tory MPs appeared to be engaging in an effort by the party’s whips to dampen down public anger by issuing nearly identical cut-and-paste messages asking constituents to “rest assured” they are passing on concerns about Cummings to the “relevant colleagues”.