Flouting the law: Dominic Cummings investigated by police breaking lockdown rules

DOMINIC Cummings was investigated by police after flouting coronavirus lockdown rules by travelling more than 250 miles away from his home in London.

Boris Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings was investigated by police after breaking the Government’s own lockdown rules according to a joint investigation with The Mirror and The Guardian.

Cummings started suffering from a bout of Covid-19 at the end of March which left him self-isolating with his wife and son for two weeks.

Downing Street claimed he was in quarantine in his London home but a report has revealed that he was actually 250 miles away in the North of England.

Government lockdown advice said: “You should not be visiting family members who do not live in your home. The only exception is if they need help, such as having shopping or medication dropped off.”

Police confirmed they had visited someone at a home in London who they found out had travelled to Durham to self-isolate when the UK was in lockdown.

They said they reminded the family that travelling to stay with relatives was breaking the rules. 

Cummings seems to be following other Tory leading lights and their do as we say not as we do ethos

Downing Street also backed a minister who travelled 150 miles from London to a property he owns in rural Herefordshire during the coronavirus lockdown.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick’s 17th-century Grade I listed country manor house is not listed as his residential home.

Days after chairing a government news conference in Westminster to reinforce the “stay at home” message, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick appeared on Sky News via video link from the seventeenth century manor house he owns in the hamlet of Eye.

This is despite the Nottinghamshire MP’s website stating his family live 120 miles away in his constituency of Newark as well as in London.

Government guidance on essential travel says the public should not visit second homes and must “remain in their primary residence”.

The spokesman said Mr Jenrick has said himself that his wife and children consider their Herefordshire home to be their family home.

Mr Jenrick, who has a £2,000-a-month taxpayer funded third home in his Newark constituency, said last night he considers the Herefordshire property to be the family home. His claimed that the £1.1million Grade I listed country mansion he drove 150 miles to during the coronavirus lockdown is his family home contradicts his official website that says different.

It also fails to mention his 17th-century Grade I listed country house, and instead says the family ‘live in Southwell near Newark, and in London’. The couple are understood to spend most of the week in the capital because of Mr Jenrick’s ministerial work and his wife’s job as a partner for a major US law firm in the City. Full story here.

Flouting the law

A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said: “On Tuesday, March 31, our officers were made aware of reports that an individual had travelled from London to Durham and was present at an address in the city.

“Officers made contact with the owners of that address who confirmed that the individual in question was present and was self-isolating in part of the house.

“In line with national policing guidance, officers explained to the family the guidelines around self-isolation and reiterated the appropriate advice around essential travel”.

Several days later on April 5, a neighbour of Cummings’ parents, Robert and Morag, claims they spotted him outside the property while passing for their daily walk.

They heard Abba’s Dancing Queen blasting playing loudly and peered over the hedge where they saw him, wearing a scarf and thick coat, with a small boy running around.

The neighbour, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “I got the shock of my life, as I looked over to the gates and saw him.

“There was a child, presumably his little boy, running around in front. I recognised Dominic Cummings, he’s a very distinctive figure.”

They added: “I was really annoyed. I thought it’s okay for you to drive all the way up to Durham and escape from London.

“I sympathise with him wanting to do that but other people are not allowed to do that. It’s one rule for Dominic Cummings and one rule for the rest of us.”

If anyone was found breaking rules during lockdown at that time they could be fined £60 for the first offence, halved to £30 if it was paid quickly. It would be doubled on each offence after that, up to a maximum of £960.

On 31 March, the PM’s official spokesman told journalists: “I think [Cummings is] in touch with No10 but he is at home, he is self-isolating, he has some symptoms.”

They spoke to the family and reminded them that travelling to stay with relatives was in breach of the rules.

A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said: “On Tuesday, March 31, our officers were made aware of reports that an individual had travelled from London to Durham and was present at an address in the city.

“Officers made contact with the owners of that address who confirmed that the individual in question was present and was self-isolating in part of the house.

“In line with national policing guidance, officers explained to the family the guidelines around self-isolation and reiterated the appropriate advice around essential travel”.

When he returned to work, Cummings’ wife, journalist Mary Wakefield, wrote about self-isolating but did not specify the family’s location.

She said: “Dom couldn’t get out of bed. Day in, day out for ten days he lay doggo with a high fever and spasms that made the muscles lump and twitch in his legs. He could breathe, but only in a limited, shallow way.

“After a week, we reached peak corona uncertainty. Day six is a turning point, I was told: that’s when you either get better or head for ICU.

“But was Dom fighting off the bug or was he heading for a ventilator? Who knew? I sat on his bed staring at his chest, trying to count his breaths per minute.

“Just as Dom was beginning to feel better, it was reported that Boris was heading in the other direction, into hospital”.

She added: “After the uncertainty of the bug itself, we emerged from quarantine into the almost comical uncertainty of London lockdown.”

In the same issue of the Spectator, Cummings wrote: “At the end of March and for the first two weeks of April I was ill, so we were both shut in together.”