British journalist Piers Morgan has slammed Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove for defending Dominic Cummings, a key adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who violated government rules on the coronavirus. Gove appeared on the BBC this morning and defended Cummings' actions, saying they were "reasonable". "He was acting in a way which sought to safeguard his family, sought to limit, reduce the risk of infection to anyone else, which took account of a range of circumstances”, Gove said in an interview on the BBC's Breakfast programme.
Morgan called Gove’s remark "a demonstrable lie" and said that Cummings’ actions had not reduced the risk of coronavirus infection, but increased it.
This is a demonstrable lie. Cummings deliberately ignored Govt rules - that he created - to take the virus first back to No10 & then to Durham, including to a hospital there. His actions INCREASED the risk of infection. 👇 https://t.co/H44IezrAxB
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 26, 2020
In another post on Twitter, the co-presenter of the Good Morning Britain show accused British politicians of saving a "hypocrite".
Michael Gove is trending No1 in the UK.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 26, 2020
It’s because nobody believes a word he’s saying.
So many cabinet ministers are destroying their own reputations at the altar of saving a lying, hypocrite adviser. Quite extraordinary. pic.twitter.com/6WAdPwdh2p
British media reported over the weekend that Dominic Cummings had made a 260-mile trip from his home in London to his parents’ house in Durham. The prime minister’s aide travelled together with his child and wife, who had coronavirus symptoms. Mr Cummings justified his trip by saying he was worried about his child, who would have been left alone if he and his wife had fallen sick. Prior to his trip, he also went to Downing Street, although government rules require people to self-isolate if someone from their household has become sick. After he arrived in Durham, the prime minister’s aide went to check his eyesight over concerns that it had been affected by the coronavirus.
The news has polarised the country’s politicians and caused anger among the public, which intensified after Prime Minister Johnson defied calls to fire Cummings and backed his adviser, saying that he had acted “responsibly”. Following Cummings’ press conference on Monday, during which he said he had no regrets over his actions, 30 Tory MPs joined calls from the opposition Labour party demanding that Cummings resign.
Conservative MP Douglas Ross tendered his resignation, saying that events in recent days had made him realise he "can no long serve as a member of the government”.
"I have constituents who didn't get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn't visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government. I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right”, Ross wrote in his resignation.
The BBC reported that the row over Cummings raises fears that the public may lose trust in the safety measures introduced by the government. This is especially important given the fact that UK is now easing the coronavirus lockdown.
