Dominic Cummings ‘should go’: Tories break ranks and demand aide’s sacking over lockdown breach

A senior Conservative MP has said Boris Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings “should go”.

Steve Baker, a prominent member of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “I have always opposed him being in Number 10.

“He creates an awful lot of collateral damage… things just get rather ugly around the edges.

“He fights against any attempt to control him and direct him and it is just not a suitable way for anyone to behave when they are in political life – we all have to be held to account.

“He is not always right, he is certainly not indispensable to Boris. No one is. I just think this is the end of the road.

“He has at the very least not abided by the slogans that he has enforced on the rest of the country and that is why he should go.”

Mr Cummings has insisted he behaved “reasonably and legally” after it was revealed he travelled 260 miles from London to his elderly parents’ home in Durham with his wife and four-year-old son during lockdown at the end of March after his spouse developed coronavirus symptoms.

These comments were echoed by Mr Johnson at Sunday’s Number 10 briefing, with the PM saying he believed his top aide had acted with “integrity” throughout and that “some” of the allegations were “palpably false”.

But Mr Baker said: “It is very clear that Dominic travelled when everybody else understood Dominic’s slogans to mean ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’.

“I think mums and dads who very much care about their children and who have been foregoing the childcare of their extended family will wonder why he has been allowed to do this.

“I really don’t see how this is going to go away unless Dominic goes.”

Mr Baker also criticised senior members of government who on Saturday voiced their support for Mr Cummings, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his cabinet colleague Michael Gove.

“I think yesterday, secretaries of state were out with some quite thin lines trying to save Dominic… and it didn’t work, and it isn’t going to work because the media aren’t going to let this go,” he said.

“I just see this rattling on now day after day, wasting the public’s time, consuming political capital and diverting from the real issues we need to deal with.

“No one is indispensable. Dominic should go, and we should have a chief of staff to the prime minister who doesn’t end up in the newspapers in this way.”

Meanwhile, Hazel Grove MP William Wragg suggested he was of the same view.

Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood also warned the government that “the ship is being blown off course”.

He wrote on Twitter: “Time for a formal address from the captain offering firm leadership, command & control to resolve setbacks, re-unite collective resolve & rebuild mission focus.”

Wellingborough MP Peter Bone said he knew parents who had found themselves in the same position as Mr Cummings “and they didn’t shoot off” to other parts of the country.

“To try and pretend he didn’t break the rules just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny,” he told Sky News.

“The vast majority of Conservative MPs think Dominic Cummings has to go. The chief whip has been inundated with people saying this isn’t sustainable.

“Dominic Cummings staying in government weakens the government and Dominic Cummings leaving strengthens the government.”

In the latest allegations, Mr Cummings was reportedly spotted by a member of public in Houghall Woods near his parents’ Durham home on 19 April.

And a week earlier, it is alleged an eyewitness saw him 30 miles away from the city, during the period he was believed to be self-isolating.

Sky News spoke to that witness, retired chemistry teacher Robin Lees, who said he spotted Mr Cummings and his family walking by the River Tees near Barnard Castle and wrote down a “distinctive” number plate.

“I saw somebody that looked like him on the 12 April and it just looked strange, as at that time there were not that many people out,” he said.

Sir Roger Gale, MP for North Thanet, who has joined the chorus of Conservative backbenchers calling for the PM to sack his top aide, told Sky News Mr Cummings’s political career was “dead in the water” if the number plate matched his registration.

He said: “How can I expect people to exercise restraint if a senior member of the government is allowed to do what he likes?

“Mr Cummings broke his own rules. I can’t believe he didn’t have a friend or a neighbour that could have helped out in London if it was necessary.

“That is why I think Mr Cummings’s position is completely untenable.”

He added: “However brilliant he may be, he is also very dangerous, and I think this situation proves that.”

Since Mr Baker publicly called for Cummings to resign, several other Conservative MPs followed suit and came out to condemn the PM’s chief aide.

Damian Collins – Dominic Cummings has a track record of believing that the rules don’t apply to him and treating the scrutiny that should come to anyone in a position of authority with contempt. The government would be better without him.

Simon Hoare – With the damage Mr Cummings is doing to the government’s reputation he must consider his position. Lockdown has had its challenges for everyone. It’s his cavalier “I don’t care; I’m cleverer than you” tone that infuriates people. He is now wounding the PM/Govt & I don’t like that.

Craig Whittaker – I totally agree that Dominic Cummings position is untenable. I’m sure he took the decision in the best interests of his family but like every decision we take we also have to take responsibility for those decisions. You cannot advise the nation one thing then do the opposite.

Caroline Nokes – I made my views clear to my whip yesterday. There cannot be one rule for most of us and wriggle room for others. My inbox is rammed with very angry constituents and I do not blame them. They have made difficult sacrifices over the course of the last 9 weeks.

Robert Syms – The Govt have to explain Test Track and Trace and the next phase of lifting lockdown next week. Whatever the merits of a Govt Adviser they should never be the story or it detracts from central message which is to get us out of this crisis. The adviser should go.

Robert Halfon – I do not support, or condone anyone who has broken the law or regulations. Anyone who has done so should face the consequences. It is important for everyone to follow public health advice, that includes members of the government and their advisors. If those regulations or laws have been breached there should be serious consequences.

(c) Sky News 2020: Dominic Cummings ‘should go’: Tories break ranks and demand aide’s sacking over lockdown breach