Dominic Cummings scandal: What did he do and did he break lockdown?

27 May 2020, 12:38 | Updated: 27 May 2020, 12:54

Boris Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings is centre of a coronavirus lockdown scandal. But what did Mr Cummins do? And did he break the rules?

Dominic Cummings, one of Boris Johnson's top aides, is facing action to resign from parliament after it was reported he broke strict lockdown rules.

Driving from his home in London to his parent's home in Durham after contracting coronavirus, many believe he broke more than one of the lockdown rules he set in place alongside Boris. However, both Dominic and Boris have said he behaved “reasonably and legally”.

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So what did Dominic Cummings do? And did he break lockdown rules? Here’s a brief overview:

What did Dominic Cummings do to create such scandal?

On March 27, four days following Boris Johnson’s UK lockdown announcement, Mr Cummings suspected his wife had coronavirus and drove to Durham, where they had family. This follows the lockdown rules that all families, suspected of having Covid-19, should isolate at their primary home. However, the rules also stated if you have children, they are “aware not all these measures are possible”.

He said: “I was worried that if my wife and I were both seriously ill, possibly hospitalised, there was nobody in London we could reasonably ask to look after our child and expose themselves to Covid.

On March 30, it was confirmed Dominic had coronavirus and was isolating “at home”. One day later, Mr Cummings father confirmed his son and family were present at his property.

During is recovery, Dominic said he was spotted by passers-by while having a walk in the woods owned by his father but there was no interaction. Dates of this have not been confirmed but around this time, it was also said that when dealing with symptoms, exercise had to remain on home ground.

On 12 of April, Dominic revealed he drove to Barnard Castle, half an hour from his parent’s property he was isolating in, to test his driving and vision was okay before making the long journey back to London.

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Did Dominic Cummings break lockdown rules?

During his official statement, Dominic maintains he did not break the law and said: “I believe that in all the circumstances I behaved reasonably and legally, balancing the safety of my family and the extreme situation in Number 10.

“The rules make clear that if you are dealing with small children that can be exceptional circumstances and the situation I was in was exceptional circumstances.”