A junior British government minister quits over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s failure to fire his top aide for allegedly breaching coronavirus lockdown rules.
Johnson has stood by Dominic Cummings over his decision to drive 250 miles (400 kilometers) to his parents’ house at the end of March, despite a national order for people to remain at home. Cummings says he traveled so that extended family could care for his 4-year-old son if he and his wife, who both had suspected coronavirus infections, fell ill.
But many Britons say Cummings made a mockery of the sacrifices of people who followed the rules to stop the spread of the disease, even when it meant staying away from loved ones.
Number 10 special advisor Dominic Cummings speaks at a press conference in the Rose Garden at 10 Downing Street in central London on May 25, 2020 (Jonathan Brady / POOL / AFP)
Scotland Minister Douglas Ross says in a resignation letter that “the vast majority of people” didn’t agree with Cummings.
“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. “I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.”
— AP
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