Coronavirus: Minister resigns over Dominic Cummings lockdown row
A government minister has resigned over senior adviser Dominic Cumming’s lockdown trips.
Douglas Ross, MP for Moray, said that while he accepted Cummings’ justification for his trips, this was “not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked”.
Ross, who also served as under-secretary of state for Scotland, said he had thought “long and hard” over the decision.
“I have constituents who didn’t get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn’t visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.”
Cummings is facing calls to resign after a joint investigation by the Mirror and the Guardian revealed he, his wife and young son had travelled to his parents’ house in Durham in late March, when his wife developed coronavirus symptoms.
The prime minister’s top aide yesterday said he did not regret his actions, insisting that his behaviour was reasonable as dealing with small children was an “exceptional circumstance”.
But he also faces criticism for travelling to tourist hotspot Barnard Castle, roughly 30 miles from Durham.
Cummings also defended this excursion, which he said was designed to “test” his eyesight after suffering coronavirus symptoms.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday doubled down on his support for his top aide, while Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove this morning also support Cummings, insisting he too had taken drives to test his eyesight.
Ross, who was re-elected as an MP last December, said he had waited to hear the full details but remained “troubled” by Cummings’ explanation.
“I have never met Dominic Cummings so my judgement on this matter has always been open and I accept his statement on Monday afternoon clarified the actions he took in what he felt were in the best interests of his family,” he wrote.
“However, these decisions many others felt were not available to them.”
While Ross is the first MP to step down over the controversy, Cummings has attracted some criticism from elsewhere within the Tory ranks.
In a social media post this morning MP Simon Jupp said he would not have made the same decisions had he been in Cummings’ position and would since have considered his position.
“This has been a deeply unhelpful distraction we could do without as a nation dealing with a pandemic,” he said.