WOKINGHAM MP Sir John Redwood has defended Dominic Cummings for his decision to leave London for Durham after contracting the coronavirus.
Today, it was revealed by The Guardian and the Daily Mirror that the adviser to prime minister Boris Johnson had breached the Government’s lockdown rules in the process.
Government advice has been that any family contracting the virus had to stay at home for at least seven days, so that there was little risk of passing Covid-19 on to others.
However, Cummings took his wife Mary Wakefield, who also had the virus, and his son to Durham. He said this was so he could be close to his family.
Durham’s police force visited the Cummings clan after being made aware of his 264-mile flit.
It came while both Johnson and health secretary Matt Hancock were also battling the virus.
Downing Street is defending Cummings, saying that he had behaved in line with coronavirus guidelines, Johnson had told the nation on Monday, March 23: “the critical thing we must do is stop the disease spreading between households”.
But there have been two high profile resignations over similar lockdown breaches.
Prof Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist whose modelling with Imperial College London prompted the lockdown, was forced to resigns as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), the body advising ministers during the crisis, after he admitted getting his lover to cross London to visit him.
And in Scotland, Scotland’s chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood resigned after making two trips to her second home during the coronavirus lockdown.
Defending Cummings, Sir John Redwood said in a tweet: “The Opposition should stop hounding Dominic Cummings. How would they have ensured children were looked after if both parents became seriously ill?”
