'Inconsistencies' in Dominic Cummings' story, says senior Tory
Penny Mordaunt, a senior government minister, has said there are “inconsistencies” in Dominic Cummings’ account of his actions during lockdown and apologised for how recent days have “undermined key public health messages”.
In an email sent to constituents, seen by the Guardian, Mordaunt said Cummings’ continued position as Boris Johnson’s chief adviser was a “matter for the prime minister” but she also she could “fully understand how angry people are” and believed there was no doubt he “took risks”.
The Cabinet Office minister, whose official title is paymaster general, is the second and most senior government minister to have criticised Cummings, after Douglas Ross resigned as Scotland Office minister on Tuesday.
“Other families have been faced with the same situation Mr Cummings and chosen to stay put,” she wrote to constituents, after the Guardian and Daily Mirror revealed that the aide travelled 260 miles from London to his family’s farm in Durham when his wife had suspected coronavirus symptoms.
“Despite Mr Cummings’ statement yesterday, I am personally still not clear of the facts. There are some inconsistencies in his account of events and the reasons behind it. I am not clear about when he would have been symptomatic and on what dates he should have been in isolation. Or whether it was appropriate he drove home at the time he did.
“There is no doubt he took risks – refuelling at a petrol station is a risk to oneself and to others, which presumably he did.
“I understand there may have been other issues which would have made other options to care for his child in London impossible. What is clear is that the scenes of the last few days will have undermined key public health messages. I deeply regret this and am very sorry for it.”
Mordaunt, a former defence secretary, said people were “reasonable and sympathetic” about the difficult choices facing families and highlighted that the public may not know all he reasons why other courses of action were not open to him.
But she added: “In all of this though is also our obligations to others too. It is because of that shared responsibility and the public making those sacrifices that we have reduced the infection rate. The rules and those obligations apply to all of us. We cannot thank people enough for all they have done.
“Perhaps my deepest regret in all of this is that it must be a distraction to efforts to combat coronavirus and the many other issues the government is still having to deal with. So much else has happened in the last few days, including a serious incursion by China into India.”
Mordaunt’s letter was sent in her capacity as a constituency MP, rather than as a government minister. But her comments are the most critical to come from a senior member of Johnson’s team.
Almost 40 Tory MPs have now called on Cummings to resign or be sacked and many more have expressed their anger in private to government. David Simmonds and Mike Freer were the latest to express their view that Cummings should go, in messages to their constituents on Wednesday.
However, Johnson and his cabinet ministers have stood behind Cummings, saying his actions were legal and reasonable – something that any father would do out of concern for their child’s welfare.
Epidemics of infectious diseases behave in different ways but the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people is regarded as a key example of a pandemic that occurred in multiple waves, with the latter more severe than the first. It has been replicated – albeit more mildly – in subsequent flu pandemics.
How and why multiple-wave outbreaks occur, and how subsequent waves of infection can be prevented, has become a staple of epidemiological modelling studies and pandemic preparation, which have looked at everything from social behaviour and health policy to vaccination and the buildup of community immunity, also known as herd immunity.
Is there evidence of coronavirus coming back in a second wave?
This is being watched very carefully. Without a vaccine, and with no widespread immunity to the new disease, one alarm is being sounded by the experience of Singapore, which has seen a sudden resurgence in infections despite being lauded for its early handling of the outbreak.
Although Singapore instituted a strong contact tracing system for its general population, the disease re-emerged in cramped dormitory accommodation used by thousands of foreign workers with inadequate hygiene facilities and shared canteens.
Singapore’s experience, although very specific, has demonstrated the ability of the disease to come back strongly in places where people are in close proximity and its ability to exploit any weakness in public health regimes set up to counter it.
What are experts worried about?
Conventional wisdom among scientists suggests second waves of resistant infections occur after the capacity for treatment and isolation becomes exhausted. In this case the concern is that the social and political consensus supporting lockdowns is being overtaken by public frustration and the urgent need to reopen economies.
The threat declines when susceptibility of the population to the disease falls below a certain threshold or when widespread vaccination becomes available.
In general terms the ratio of susceptible and immune individuals in a population at the end of one wave determines the potential magnitude of a subsequent wave. The worry right now is that with a vaccine still months away, and the real rate of infection only being guessed at, populations worldwide remain highly vulnerable to both resurgence and subsequent waves.
Attempting to defuse public anger, Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, said on Tuesday that anyone could do the same as Cummings in similar circumstances, even though his actions have provoked uproar, with polls suggesting that the majority of people believe he should resign.
“If there are no other options, if you don’t have ready access to childcare, then you can do as Dominic Cummings chose to do,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
However, Jenrick said it was not possible for any fines already issued to people for driving to seek childcare to be reviewed, contrary to suggestions from Matt Hancock, the health secretary, on Tuesday.
“There isn’t going to be a formal review. It’s for the police to decide whether to impose fines under the law,” Jenrick said.
The controversy was ignited last week when the Guardian and Mirror revealed that Cummings had driven across England with his wife and four-year-old son fearing that they may have contracted Covid-19, in order to seek possible childcare.
After his 14-day quarantine period, Cummings took his family on a 60-mile round trip to a beauty spot in Barnard Castle, which he says was to test whether his eyesight was good enough for him to drive back to London on 13 April.
More Tory MPs went public on Tuesday night and Wednesday with calls for Cummings to resign, while three of the party’s new County Durham MPs – Richard Holden, Dehenna Davison and Paul Howell – said none of them would have taken the same decision and acknowledged that the “continuing situation is creating a major distraction”.
As Johnson was questioned on Cummings at the liaison committee, Giles Watling, the MP for Clacton, tweeted: “I’ve been listening to the PM in the liaison committee. I applaud him for sticking by his man but I’m afraid Mr Cummings should stand down. His continued presence at the heart of government at this time is an unwanted distraction.”
In Cummings’ defence, Danny Kruger, a former No 10 aide and new Conservative MP, raised the stakes by telling colleagues in a note that demands for resignation were tantamount to a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.
