• Live.Coronavirus, latest news
  • Coronavirus.Dominic Cummings interfered with scientific advice to Boris Johnson
  • United Kingdom.Rebellion in schools against the de-escalation of Boris Johnson

Downing Street has come to the defense of Boris Johnson strategist Dominic Cummings on the tightrope, revealing that he traveled by car with his family from London to Durham (400 kilometers) after contracting the coronavirus. In a statement, the British government alleges that Cummings did not violate the confinement, as it was an "essential" trip for his sister to "take proper care" of her three-year-old son , Alexander, while he and his wife They isolated themselves at their parents' house. The Labor opposition referred to the rules stipulated by Boris Johnson at that time and applied in his own case: " If you have symptoms of coronavirus, you should isolate yourself and undergo a test ... Do not risk spreading the virus"

"His actions were in line with the confinement rules," the official statement emphasized. "Cummings believes that he behaved in a reasonable and legal manner." The 48-year-old Johnson strategist was the mastermind of the Vote Leave campaign in the Brexit victory and the architect of the conservative leader's electoral victory in December.

Rusófilo from his youth, known as the "Rasputin" of Boris, his eagerness to break the rules have earned him many headlines. In recent weeks, he had come to the fore as the originator of a "purge" of senior officials and for his political interference in the SAGE scientists' emergency committee, which advises the government on measures to deal with the pandemic.

The pressures calling for Cummings' resignation have escalated in recent hours. Ian Blackford, spokesman for the Scottish National Party (SNP) in Westminster, accused the government of "cover-up" for not revealing Cummings' whereabouts so far since he ran out of Downing Street on March 27, hours after Boris Johnson revealed that he had given "positive" in the coronavirus test.

Government epidemiologist and scientific adviser Neil Ferguson resigned more than a week ago for violating the confinement rules to meet his lover in London . Scotland's chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, also resigned after acknowledging that she had traveled to her second residence during.

"There cannot be some rules for decision-makers and others for the rest of the British," said a Labor Party spokesman. "People have made extraordinary sacrifices during the pandemic and confinement."

According to The Guardian , British police rushed to Cummings' family home on March 31 in Durham upon learning of the presence of the Boris Johnson strategist. When they allegedly interrogated their parents, they made sure that "the individual in question was self-isolated in one part of the house" and recalled the strict rules of the confinement that went into effect on March 23.

Several members of the Government (and possibly Johnson himself, then confined at 11 Downing Street) knew of Cummings' whereabouts , although they had kept it secret until now.

Everything seems to indicate that Cummings traveled by car from his home in East London during the weekend of March 28. Several witnesses claimed to have seen her on April 5 in the garden of her parents' home in Durham. At that time, and as his wife, Mary Wakefield, wrote, Cummings had spent 10 days "getting in and out of bed, with a high fever and spasms."

The strategist returned to Downing Street on his own on April 14, while Johnson was still convalescing after passing through the hospital. Cummings (the originator of the Take Back Control slogan during the EU referendum) is also supposed to be behind the controversial "Stay Alert" motto that has sowed confusion in the coronavirus de-escalation . The pandemic has so far claimed 36,393 deaths in the United Kingdom, the country with the most deaths in Europe.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • London
  • Boris Johnson
  • United Kingdom
  • Europe
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

Boris Johnson's top adviser skipped confinement

United KingdomLondon calls for access to EU pandemic alert system

InterviewJoão Vale de Almeida: "Brexit and coronavirus have united the Twenty-seven more"