Dominic Cummings shouldn’t resign as he “didn’t break the rules or the law”, the Education Secretary has claimed.
Gavin Williamson this morning issued a fiery defence of the Prime Ministers top aide after he was accused of breaking the lockdown three times to see his family 260 miles from his London home.
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Despite a growing backlash from Tory MPs, today Mr Williamson insisted the controversial Vote Leave organiser had done nothing wrong.
He told Sky News: “The guidance is incredibly extensive and at the heart of that guidance is always the issue of safeguarding children and making sure that children are always absolutely protected.
“My understanding is from what the Prime Minister said yesterday is that at every stage Dominic Cummings followed and his family followed the guidance and at no stage did Dominic Cummings or his family break the law.”
The Education Secretary insisted Mr Cummings should not resign “because he has made it clear that he’s broken no rules and he’s broken no laws”.
It comes with Boris Johnson facing a full-blown Cabinet revolt for sticking by embattled top aide Dominic Cummings over his lockdown breach.
Last night PM said he had cleared his most senior adviser of any wrongdoing and branded his actions “sensible and defensible”.
Mr Cummings is accused of ignoring strict government advice by driving his virus-stricken wife, Mary Wakefield, from London to self-isolate at his family farm near Durham.
He spent five hours holed up in No 10 yesterday, fuelling speculation he was about to quit.
But Boris emerged to tell the nation he was standing by his man, who he said was only trying to protect his four-year-old son.
Hosting a tense evening No 10 briefing, Boris dismissed growing calls for an official inquiry.
Instead he insisted Dominc Cummings had acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity”, and “stuck to the rules”.
The PM added: “He followed the instinct of every father and every parent, and I do not mark him down for that.”
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Furious Tory backbenchers are demanding the controversial aide is booted out of his role immediately.
Yesterday Tory MP Steve Baker became the first to publicly call for him to resign.
Appearing on Sky News, he said: “If he doesn’t resign we’ll keep burning through Boris’s political capital.
“I think mums and dads who very much care about their children and who have been foregoing the childcare of their extended family will wonder why he has been allowed to do this.
“We’re now in a nonsense position, a pantomime position where it seems if you wish to apply a wide common sense interpretation of the rules you can do, at least if you work in Number 10.
“It’s ridiculous and he has to go.”
The Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also demanded he go, pointing to the resignation of Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood after it was revealed she visited her second home.
She tweeted: “I know it is tough to lose a trusted adviser at the height of crisis, but when it’s a choice of that or integrity of vital public health advice, the latter must come first.
“That’s the judgement I and, to her credit, Catherine Calderwood reached. PM and Cummings should do likewise.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “This was a test of the Prime Minister and he has failed it.
“It is an insult to sacrifices made by the British people that Boris Johnson has chosen to take no action against Dominic Cummings.
“The public will be forgiven for thinking there is one rule for the Prime Minister’s closest adviser and another for the British people.
“The Prime Minister’s actions have undermined confidence in his own public health message at this crucial time.
“Millions were watching for answers and they got nothing. That’s why the Cabinet Secretary must now launch an urgent inquiry.”
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