London: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top aide is facing increasing pressure to resign as further allegations emerged on Sunday of him breaching the coronavirus lockdown rules.
Dominic Cummings, who is Johnson’s Chief Strategy Adviser at No. 10 Downing Street, on Saturday defended a 250-mile journey to his parents’ home in Durham, north-east England, as “reasonable and legal” and the UK prime minister has so far stuck by him with Downing Street reiterating the same line.
However, Johnson now faces a revolt from within his own Conservative MPs over his decision not to sack Cummings as fresh allegations emerged of the aide making repeated trips in breach of the government’s stay-at-home guidance to curb the spread of the deadly virus. The ‘Observer’and ‘Sunday Mirror’ reported that Cummings was seen in the north east of England on two more occasions, after recovering from his COVID-19 symptoms and returning to work in London. Downing Street has branded the reports as “inaccurate”.
But backbench Tory MP and former chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) Steve Baker called for Cummings to resign. “The country can’t afford this nonsense, this pantomime, Dominic should go and we should move on and deal with things that matter in people’s lives,” he told the BBC. Fellow Conservative MP Simon Hoare has called for Cummings to “consider his position” and Tory MP Damian Collins has said the government “would be better without him”.
Speaking to reporters outside his home in London on Saturday morning after the first allegation emerged related to a trip at the end of March, Cummings said he would not be resigning and had done the “right thing”.
On Sunday, newspapers report that witnesses saw Cummings in Barnard Castle, more than 25 miles from Durham, on April 12. Two days later, on April 14, he was seen in London. According to a witness, he was spotted again in Houghall Woods near Durham on April 19. “Yesterday the Mirror and Guardian wrote inaccurate stories about Mr Cummings. Today they are writing more inaccurate stories including claims that Mr Cummings returned to Durham after returning to work in Downing Street on 14 April,” a Downing Street statement said. (PTI)
