British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will not fire his chief aide for allegedly violating the national coronavirus lockdown rules that he helped to create.
Johnson defies a growing clamor for the dismissal of adviser Dominic Cummings, who drove 250 miles (400 kilometers) from London to his parents’ home in Durham, in northeast England, with his wife and son, as he was coming down with COVID-19 at the end of March.
Britain’s lockdown, which began March 23, stipulated that people should remain at their primary residence, leaving only for essential local errands and exercise. Anyone with coronavirus symptoms was told to completely isolate themselves.
Cummings says he traveled to be near extended family because his wife was showing COVID-19 symptoms, he correctly thought he was also infected, and he wanted to ensure that his 4-year-old son was looked after.
Johnson says he had held “extensive” conversations with Cummings and concluded he acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity.”
He tells a news conference that Cummings “followed the instincts of every father and every parent.”
But several lawmakers from Johnson’s Conservative Party joined the opposition in calling for Cummings to go.
— AP
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this