LONDON, May 25: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended his senior advisor Dominic Cummings, who had breached coronavirus lockdown rules by traveling from London to Durham, in northeast England, with his family amid the pandemic.
“I can tell you today that I’ve had extensive face-to-face conversations with Dominic Cummings and I conclude that in traveling to find the right kind of childcare at the moment when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by coronavirus and when he had no alternative I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent and I do not mark him down for that,” Johnson said in a public address on Sunday.
The prime minister added that many allegations had been circulating in the media about Cummings, some of which were “probably false.” Johnson insisted that his advisor had acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity.”
Witnesses told The Guardian that Cummings was spotted in Durham on April 19, and in Barnard Castle, which is located 30 miles from Durham, on Easter Day. The Guardian said on Saturday that UK ministers had insisted that Cummings had stayed put once arriving at the property in Durham, where he was seeking support from his extended family as he had demonstrated coronavirus symptoms, along with his wife.
The reported April trips that Cummings took came after his first trip from London to Durham at the end of March, according to The Guardian.
The Evening Standard reported on Saturday that Cummings’ father spoke to Durham police on April 1, after the senior adviser was spotted in Durham at the end of March. The police told The Evening Standard that during the conversation, Cummings’ father confirmed that his son had travelled with his family from London to the North-East and was self-isolating in part of the property in Durham.
In response to the British media reports, a Downing Street spokeswoman said on Saturday that the stories, particularly from The Mirror and The Guardian, were inaccurate, and that the allegations about Cummings were false.
(agencies)
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