Dominic Cummings has been victim of persecution and has broken no law, say Cabinet ministers
Dominic Cummings has been a victim of persecution and did not break the law by travelling to Durham with his family, the Cabinet was told yesterday.
Attorney General Suella Braverman, the Government's chief legal adviser, said there had been no legal breaches by Mr Cummings despite his travelling 264 miles with his wife and four year old child to his parents’ farm in Durham at the end of March at the height of Government’s lockdown.
“No laws have been broken,” she told ministers, adding that the Cabinet should back Mr Cummings, Boris Johnson’s senior adviser.
It came just hours before Mr Cummings gave a Number 10 press conference to defend his journey as “reasonable and legal” because of the exceptional circumstances that both he and his wife were “seriously ill” with coronavirus and had nobody to look after their son.
At yesterday’s Cabinet, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons leader, also spoke out to defend Mr Cummings, saying the “persecution” of special advisers was “not acceptable.”
The West Country MP said the whole of Somerset backed the Prime Minister in his defence of Mr Cummings and that Cabinet should make clear what is permissible.
It followed a weekend tweet by Mr Rees-Mogg in which he said “politically-motivated attacks” on a good father were “discreditable.” “Caring for your child is obviously reasonable,” he added.
It is believed they were only two interventions about Mr Cummings at Cabinet with Mr Johnson himself making no reference to it. There was, however, a sense of irony among ministers receiving the Cabinet papers in the morning with the title “Amending Social Distancing Regulations.”
Some ministers fear the Cummings affair could make lockdown harder to enforce if people believe there are defences of using their “instincts” in “exceptional circumstances.”
“Enforcement is now going to be difficult. It will look like we are asking people to do things that we are not prepared to do ourselves,” one minister told The Daily Telegraph.
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, and Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, were the first to issue public declarations of support for Mr Cummings after his press conference.
Mr Gove agreed that Mr Cummings had given a “detailed and fair” explanation of the events, adding: “It’s clear now that allegations were made which were untrue and Dominic Cummings acted legally and reasonably.”
Mr Raab retweeted: “A full, frank, honest and open statement from Dominic Cummings. He acted as a father and husband, within the rules.
“He has had lots of misinformation put out there about him. Time to move on and focus on solving this massive national challenge of Covid-19.”
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, also said Mr Cummings should not quit because he had not broken any laws. “He has made it clear that he’s broken no rules and he’s broken no laws,” he said.
Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis welcomed Mr Cummings’ comprehensive account: “He followed the guidelines to ensure minimum risk to others and suitable care could be provided to his young child as required."
As the Government’s law officer, Ms Braverman will face serious questions if police decide the law was broken. Stephen White, the acting police and crime commissioner for Durham, has asked the force to investigate the circumstances of Mr Cummings’ and establish if the law was broken.
Ms Braverman defended Mr Cummings at the weekend, saying attempts to politicise it were “wholly inappropriate.” “Protecting one’s family is what any good parent does,” she said.
Some lawyers said her statements undermined the independence of her office and put her in an impossible position in relation to any subsequent police inquiry.
“She’s the adviser to the prime minister on matters of law and she therefore needs to be absolutely scrupulous to maintain an independent position on legal matters,” said Philippe Sands, professor of international law at UCL.
