UK lawmakers demand Johnson aide be fired for breaking lockdown rules

Lawmakers from Britain’s governing Conservative party are joining opposition calls for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top aide to quit for traveling 250 miles (400 kilometers) to his parents’ home during a nationwide lockdown while he was coming down with the coronavirus.

The government has defended Dominic Cummings after the revelation that he had driven from London to Durham, northeast England, with his wife and son at the end of March. A lockdown that began March 23 stipulated that people should remain at their primary residence, leaving only for essential local errands and exercise.

The government said Cummings made the trip because he wanted to ensure his 4-year-old son was looked after while he and his wife were ill. But critics of the government express outrage that Cummings had broken stringent rules saying people should “Stay Home … Save Lives.”

Conservative lawmaker Steve Baker says Cummings must go for not “abiding by the spirit, at least, of the slogans which he has enforced on the rest of the country.” Another Tory legislator, Simon Hoare, tweets: “With the damage Mr Cummings is doing to the Government’s reputation he must consider his position.”

— AP