The prime minister’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has said he does not regret driving 260 miles from London during the coronavirus lockdown.
He revealed he had not told Boris Johnson when he decided to take his family to County Durham after his wife developed Covid-19 symptoms.
Mr Cummings said he believed he had acted “reasonably” and within the law, BBC reports.
Mr Johnson said he understood “the confusion, anger and pain” felt and people “needed to hear” from his aide.
He added that Mr Cummings had acted “reasonably” and with “integrity and care for others”, but Labour and the Liberal Democrats accused both men of double standards.
During his statement, Mr Cummings revealed he had:
- travelled from work in Westminster to his home on 27 March after his wife – the journalist Mary Wakefield – fell ill, then returned to work hours later
- driven his wife and son from London to County Durham that evening
- stayed at a cottage on his parents’ farm
- developed Covid symptoms on 28 March
- driven on 3 April to pick up his wife and son from hospital, where his son had stayed overnight after he “threw up and had a bad fever”
- driven around 30 minutes from his family farm to the town of Barnard Castle on Easter Sunday (12 April) – 15 days after he had displayed symptoms – in an effort to test his eyesight and readiness to drive back to London
- taken his family back to London on 13 April
