Boris Johnson has pledged his complete support for Dominic Cummings over a trip to a distant family home during the peak of the lockdown, using a Downing Street press conference to insist his chief adviser “acted responsibly, legally and with integrity”. Facing intense pressure to explain why Cummings appeared to have flouted lockdown rules by driving more than 260 miles to his parents’ estate in Durham with his wife and young son after his wife became ill, the prime minister said Cummings had simply been trying to keep his family safe. “I have had extensive face-to-face conversations with Dominic Cummings and I have concluded that in travelling to find the right kind of childcare, at the moment when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by coronavirus – and when he had no alternative – I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent,” Johnson said. “And I do not mark him down for that.” Calling some of the allegations against Cummings “palpably false” – but not saying which – Johnson continued: “I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly, legally and with integrity, and with the overriding aim to stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives.” Johnson often appeared to struggle, however, when asked about Cummings’s actions, with almost every question devoted to the subject. He ignored part of a question which asked whether it was true that Cummings had been spotted in Barnard Castle, about 30 miles from Durham, during the period coinciding with his lockdown. He also said Cummings’s actions did not imply a loosening of restrictions. The prime minister insisted that Cummings’s trip was in line with restrictions on movement in place at the time, and that people could use their own discretion in similar circumstances.
“Looking at the very severe childcare difficulties that presented themselves to Dominic Cummings and his family, I think that what they did was totally understandable,” he said. “He found those needs where they could best be served, best be delivered and yes that did involve travel.” “As far as I can see, he stuck to the rules and he acted legally and responsibly with the sole objective of avoiding such contact as would spread the virus. His objective was to stop the spread of the virus and he behaved in such a way as to do that.” His comments prompted condemnation from opposition MPs. Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat interim leader, said the public would be “astonished and angry at how the prime minister is now bending the rules for his closest aide”. “By failing to act, the prime minister undermines his own authority to lead the country through this appalling crisis, bringing his own judgement into question,” he said. Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary, tweeted that Johnson “said Cummings was following his instincts, the rest of the country was following the rules. Where does that leave us if everyone now is to follow their instincts?”
Such a vehement and robust show of support for his powerful adviser puts Johnson on a collision course with increasing numbers of Conservative backbenchers, who have said Cummings’s actions risked losing public support for lockdown measures. MPs including the former minister and 1922 Committee member, Steve Baker, and the chair of the Northern Ireland select committee, Simon Hoare, said Cummings should step aside to stop further damage to the government. Hoare said: “With the damage Mr Cummings is doing to the government’s reputation he must consider his position. Lockdown has had its challenges for everyone. “It’s his cavalier ‘I don’t care; I’m cleverer than you’ tone that infuriates people. He is now wounding the PM/Govt & I don’t like that,” he wrote on Twitter. Roger Gale, the MP for North Thanet, joined the chorus of Tory backbenchers calling for Cummings to resign. He tweeted: “While as a father and as a grandfather I fully appreciate Mr Cummings’s desire to protect his child, there cannot be one law for the prime minister’s staff and another for everyone else.”