Downing Street has blocked further questions about Dominic Cummings apparent breaches of lockdown rules, insisting he has given a “full and detailed account”.
Boris Johnson’s chief aide’s extraordinary press conference has triggered fresh criticism of his actions – including his day trip to Barnard Castle and his decision to return to London, after medical advice he claimed.
But the prime minister’s spokesman insisted it was not his job to answer further questions, about a special adviser, saying: “There is nothing for me to add.”
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There would be no civil service investigation into whether Mr Cummings broke the code of conduct for advisers, he added, because Mr Johnson is “satisfied with his explanation” for leaving London during lockdown.
The spokesman was unable to say whether he would make himself “open and available” to answer further questions himself.
The stance comes despite Conservative MPs continuing to call for Mr Cummings to resign or be sacked, one junior minister quitting himself in protest at his behaviour.
No 10’s attempt to shut down the controversy was also undermined by a new YouGov poll revealing 59 per cent of the public believes the aide should be sacked – up from 52 per cent at the weekend.
One senior Tory, public administration committee chairman William Wragg, said cabinet ministers tweeting out near-identical messages of support for Mr Cummings was “humiliating and degrading”.
Among unanswered questions about his account are:
* Who advised it was safe for him to return to London, after two weeks in Durham, and whether it was the chief medical adviser?
* Why Michael Gove has now said there was no reason to think Mr Cummings’ wife had coronavirus when he went home – before returning to No 10 to work – when No 10 had said she did suspect she was infected?
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* Whether Mr Cummings drove to the Barnard Castle beauty spot partly to take exercise – as Mr Gove suggested – when that would appear to be against police advice at the time?
* How Mr Cummings was able to drive to hospital to collect his son on 3 April, when his wife Mary had written, on 28 March, that he was unable to get out of bed for 10 days?
* Whether No 10 had seen the photos that Mr Cummings claims is proof he did not, as alleged, make a second trip to Durham later in April?
But the spokesman said: “I can’t be a spokesman for special advisers, that’s not my job. If you have questions in that regard they’ll have to go elsewhere I’m afraid.
“The prime minister asked Dominic Cummings to set out his explanation in public and he did that last night, he answered questions extensively.”
He was unable to explain why No 10 said, on Saturday that his wife had been infected with suspected coronavirus, which had now been contradicted.
“He set out his account of what had happened yesterday. I think it was a very full and detailed account and there’s nothing for me to add to it,” the spokesman insisted.
