If it were up to the British government, top advisor Dominic Cummings could simply remain in office. He was discredited earlier this week after it was revealed that he had broken strict lockdown rules in March.
The top counselor had taken a 400-kilometer trip to his hometown of Durham in northern England in March, when he was already infected with the coronavirus and his wife was showing clear symptoms.
During that time, people were only allowed to visit others for essential help. Cummings argued that he needed his parents’ help in raising his children. The British government endorses this argument and supports Cummings.
“Because his wife was infected and there was a good chance that he would not get well, he thought it was essential that his children receive the best possible care,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “His sister and nieces offered help. There was no physical contact.”
Cummings is one of Johnson’s most important Brexit advisers. Partly due to the sometimes shadowy tactics of the 48-year-old Englishman, Johnson managed to bend the Brexit referendum.
Johnson must show leadership
Opposition pressure on Cummings to leave is increasing. “He should have resigned immediately when the news leaked,” Ian Blackford, Scottish National Party leader, said on Saturday. “Now that he hasn’t, Boris Johnson needs to show leadership and fire him himself.”
Among other things, the opposition argued that the rules could apparently be stretched for key officials. “The British people do not expect one rule to apply to them and not to Dominic Cummings,” said a Labor spokesman. The Liberal Democrats also think that Cummings should leave.
If Cummings quits after all, he will be Johnson’s second top advisor to stop violating the corona rules. Epidemiologist and mathematician Neil Ferguson previously left the British government’s crisis team for this reason. On his advice, the British government preferred a partial lockdown over a looser course towards group immunity.
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