A top police commissioner has attacked No 10 strategist Dominic Cummings’ decision to travel from London to Durham during lockdown, claiming it made a “mockery” of police enforcement efforts.
Martin Surl, the independent police and crime commissioner for Gloucestershire, said Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser had thrown the rules into confusion and jeopardised police attempts to make sure people don’t make unnecessary journeys.
“I think it makes it much harder for police going forward. This will be quoted back at them time and time again when they try to enforce the new rules,” Mr Surl told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
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“I think more importantly it makes something of a mockery of police action going back when the message was very, very clear – stay at home. The police had a very harsh, very difficult message, and now it appears people could act differently.”
He added: “So I think it does undermine the policing going back, and their confidence going forward – it’ll be more difficult.”
An eyewitness has claimed he saw Mr Cummings making a visit to Barnard Castle on 12 April. According to The Guardian and The Mirror, retired chemistry teacher Robin Lees has made a complaint to Durham Police about the alleged visit.
Mr Surl suggested claims made by the prime minister that his advisor had acted “legally” and “responsibly” had raised genuine doubts about what the current restrictions on movement were supposed to be.
“I take you back to when this all happened, on the 12th of April. I think the police who dealt with those [lockdown] situations then need to understand what the rules are now … or are they going to change?”
The police commissioner also suggested No 10 still had an opportunity to clear up some of the confusion, but a series of questions about Mr Cummings’ trip to Durham remained answered.
“Was he at Barnard Castle on the 12th of April? Yes or no? Was it his car number? Yes or no? Was he self-isolating during the period? Yes or no? Was he doing essential exercise? Yes or no. They are really simple questions. People know the answers, but we the public are not trusted to make our own minds up.”
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Durham’s former chief constable Mike Barton also claimed Mr Johnson throwing his support behind Mr Cummings had made enforcing the lockdown much harder.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Barton added: “Policing the lockdown has probably been one of the toughest assignments ever given to the British police and they have risen to the challenge.
“But what the Prime Minister did yesterday has now made it exponentially tougher for all those people on the front line, those PCSOs and cops on the front line, enforcing the lockdown. We are in the middle of a national emergency and people who make the rules cannot break the rules, otherwise we are going to have chaos.”
It follows strong condemnation of Mr Cummings’ actions by Durham’s acting police and crime commissioner Steve White, who said travelling to the county was “most unwise”.
Mr White said on Monday that he had written to Jo Farrell, the chief constable of Durham Police, asking her “to establish the facts concerning any potential breach of the law or regulations in this matter at any juncture”.
Meanwhile, Amanda Hopgood, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Durham County Council, has also asked the police to make enquiries into Mr Cummings’ movements in the area.
The councillor said in a statement: “A number of local residents have reported seeing Dominic Cummings on several occasions in April and May and have expressed concern about the public health implications of his presence.”
Ms Hopgood added that she had “referred this matter to the chief constable of Durham to ask her force to investigate”.
Mr Cummings has denied he made any further visits to Durham after returning to London. “No, I did not,” he said when asked by reporters on Sunday if he had made a second trip to his parents’ home.
