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Dominic Cummings refuses to apologise for 400km lockdown trip
By Bevan Shields
London: Dominic Cummings has moved to insulate Boris Johnson from a rapidly worsening political scandal, convening an extraordinary press conference to slap down demands for his resignation and reveal damaging new details of his trip to regional England at the peak of Britain's coronavirus lockdown.
The Prime Minister's powerful chief adviser refused to apologise for driving 400 kilometres from London to Durham even though he and his wife had coronavirus, and dismissed warnings from the government's own scientific advisers that the saga undermined social distancing rules by creating a perception that government officials could circumvent the rules with no consequences.
Dominic Cummings holds a press conference in the rose garden at Downing Street on Monday.Credit: PA
The government sent senior UK minister Michael Gove out on breakfast radio the next morning to defend Cummings after almost two dozen MPs called for his resignation.
Gove told BBC Breakfast that Cummings was "a man of honour and integrity", and while the advisor was "under pressure", he and his wife "took care to ensure they as a family unit were not in danger of infecting other people".
"I don't think I'm so different, and I don't think there's one rule for me and one rule for other people," Cummings said.
"I've seen some of the media over the last couple of days, and I'm not surprised that a lot of people are very angry. I hope and think that today, when I’ve actually explained all the circumstances about it, I think people realise this is a very complicated, tricky situation."
But in outlining his defence to reporters at Downing Street, Cummings appeared to have confirmed or revealed a number of new breaches.
On March 27 - the same day Johnson announced he had tested positive for coronavirus - Cummings was called home by his wife Mary Wakefield, who felt ill. After going home to care for her, Cummings returned to work at Downing Street later that afternoon. Government rules at the time said a family must immediately self-isolate for 14 days if any member of the household had symptoms.
That night, Cummings drove Wakefield and their young son five hours north to Durham to stay in a cottage on his mother and father's farm, fearing nobody could care for their child if they both fell ill with the virus. But Cummings admitted on Monday that he did not check whether there were any childcare options in London before the family went to Durham.
"I can understand that some people will argue I should have stayed at home in London," Cummings said. "I understand these views, I understand the intense hardship and sacrifice the entire country has gone through. However, I respectfully disagree," he said.
"The legal rules inevitably do not cover all circumstances, including those that I found myself in."
Cummings also admitted to a separate trip on Easter Sunday in which he, his wife and son undertook a 100-kilometre round trip from his parents' farm to the small town of Barnard Castle. Under pressure to explain that, Cummings claimed COVID-19 had damaged his eyes and he needed to test whether his sight was strong enough to eventually drive back to London.
"We decided we should go for a short drive to see if I could drive safely. We drove for roughly half-an-hour and ended up on the outskirts of Barnard Castle town."
The family got out of the car and sat by a river, even though they had only one day earlier ended the 14-day mandatory period of self-isolation. They also went there even though Cummings could not stand up only days earlier. The government had repeatedly urged all Brits to stay home and not make unnecessary journeys.
The Barnard Castle trip is now the most likely to bring Cummings unstuck. He could not say on Monday how the trip was permitted under Britain's lockdown guidelines at the time.
Cummings revealed his child became unwell in Durham in early April and had to be taken to hospital via ambulance. He later tested negative to coronavirus. Cummings conceded he left the cottage he was self-isolating in to go and pick up his wife and child from the hospital the next morning.
"There were no taxis. I drove to the hospital, picked them up, then returned home. I did not leave the car or have any contact with anybody at any point on this short trip," he said.
Wakefield, a journalist for the Spectator magazine, wrote about the family's coronavirus ordeal after they returned to London in mid-April but never mentioned the trip to Durham, the drive to Barnard Castle or their child's overnight hospitalisation.
The saga has infuriated Tory MPs who believe Johnson has made a grave political error in expending political capital to stand by Cummings.
Nearly two dozen Tory MPs have publicly demanded Cummings stand down, and Durham police have pledged to investigate his movements in the region.
The press conference was thought to be the first held at Downing Street by a government staffer.Credit: PA
Cummings said he had not offered his resignation. Asked if he would review his position as the scandal drags on, Cummings replied: "It's up to the Prime Minister."
He also said he did not tell Johnson that he was going to Durham before driving there on the night of Friday, March 27.
"I did not ask the Prime Minister about this decision. He was ill himself and had huge problems to deal with," Cummings said.
A protester holds up a placard which reads 'Why are you above the law?' outside the home of Dominic Cummings.Credit: Getty
"Arguably this was a mistake and I understand some will say I should have spoken with the Prime Minister before I decided what to do."
Johnson was told in the week starting March 29 that Cummings had made the trip.
"At some point during the first week where we were both sick and in bed, I mentioned to him what I had done. Unsurprisingly, given the condition we were in, neither of us remember the conversation in any detail," Cummings said.
The hour-long press conference was held in the rose garden at the back of Downing Street and was considered an unprecedented move by a government staffer.
Durham's acting police and crime commissioner Simon White backed the conduct of his officers on Monday and said he had ordered an investigation into Cummings' time in the region.
In a later press conference, Johnson said Cummings had not dented the public's faith in or adherence to lockdown laws.
"I think people will make up their minds about what Mr Cummings had to say," Johnson said.
He also said his own eyesight had been affected by coronavirus and it was "plausible" that Cummings' own vision had been affected.
The UK's official coronavirus death toll stands at 36,914.