Prime Minister Boris Johnson retained his special adviser Dominic Cummings, accused of violating the rules of containment imposed to fight the new coronavirus.
Despite the outcry and indignation, including among the ranks of his Conservative majority, to demand the departure of the controversial adviser, the head of government said that he had acted “responsibly, lawfully, and honestly”.
The getaway flop
Dominic Cummings, 48, mastermind of the 2016 referendum campaign that led to Brexit, has been in the midst of a political storm since two newspapers revealed on Friday evening that he had visited his wife in late March and their son with his parents in Durham (400 km north-east of London), when he feared he had Covid-19.
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“What they did is perfectly understandable”, said the Prime Minister, who came to personally insure the daily press conference on Downing Street about the pandemic.
According to the Prime Minister’s office, Dominic Cummings made the trip because he needed help looking after his son while his wife was sick, and the family stayed in a building separate from the property.
An insult to the sacrifices made by the British people
The controversy redoubled when The Observer, Sunday edition of Guardian, and the Sunday Mirror, the source of the first revelations, said Dominic Cummings was also seen in Durham on April 19, five days after returning to London to return to work after his recovery.
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But Boris Johnson dismissed the new charges, saying many of the allegations in the press were “manifestly false”.
Questioned this Sunday by journalists outside his London home, the special adviser denied having visited Durham again in April.
“It was a test for the Prime Minister and he failed “, Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer reacted, for whom the absence of sanctions is “an insult to the sacrifices made by the British people”.
Boris Johnson had chosen this agitated Sunday to confirm the partial reopening of primary schools on June 1, a subject which is also controversial when the Prime Minister is already strongly criticized on his management of the coronavirus crisis.
The UK is the second hardest hit country in the world by the pandemic with 36,793 deaths, more than 41,000 including the unconfirmed cases.
Arrogant and rude
The Cummings affair also stirred the ranks of the conservative party of Boris Johnson, where the powerful adviser, who is not a member of the party, counts many enemies.
Steve Baker, influential MP and fierce supporter of Brexit, said Dominic Cummings should leave. “It is certainly not essential”Baker said on Sky News.
Lively controversy
Strangling a Dominic Cummings who “used to believe that the rules did not apply to him”MP Damian Collins said on Twitter that the government would be better off “without him”.
“Millions of people put their lives on hold, made huge sacrifices to obey the rules during this period”, said Labor Party official Sarah Jones. “We have seen the broken hearts of people who were unable to attend the funeral of their loved ones”, she denounced on Sky News.
In the wake of Boris Johnson’s intervention, a vehement tweet arose from the administration’s account: “Arrogant and rude. Can you imagine having to work with these truth-wrackers?” Quickly deleted, the message will be investigated, the government’s Twitter account said.
Prior to this case, the UK had two resounding resignations for breaching the confinement in force since March 23. An influential government scientific advisor, Professor Neil Ferguson, had resigned after receiving a woman, presented as his mistress, into his home.
In early April, the head of the Scottish health services, Catherine Calderwood, left her post after admitting to having visited her second home twice.
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