The SNP has called on Boris Johnson to answer questions about Dominic Cummings' rule-breaking and the Downing Street cover-up.
It comes after Boris Johnson’s chief adviser travelled more than 260 miles during the coronavirus lockdown to Durham in the north east of England, to be near his family.
In an interview with Sky News' Gamal Fahnbulleh this afternoon, Ian Blackford MP urged the Prime Minister to answer questions to answer about the situation involving advisor Dominic Cummings.
READ MORE: Credibility of PM and UK Govt's coronavirus strategy on line as Tory MPs call for Dominic Cummings to go
The calls come amid a series of calls from MPs for Cummings to resign. Several Conservative MPs such as Steve Baker, Damian Collins, Simon Hoare, William Wragg, Caroline Noakes, Peter Bone and Sir Roger Gale have all called for Cummings to quit.
Commenting, SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford MP said: "Boris Johnson now has very serious questions to answer about his judgement and integrity.
"The Prime Minister cannot dodge scrutiny any longer. He must come out of hiding, turn up to today's press conference, and put on the record what he knew about Dominic Cummings' rule-breaking and whether he played a role in the Downing Street cover-up.
"It is beyond doubt that Dominic Cummings broke multiple lockdown rules, possibly on multiple occasions. As Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw said: 'There cannot be one rule for bosses and another for everyone else'. Mr Cummings must go - or Boris Johnson must sack him.
"The excuses are not credible and do not stack up. It's no wonder there is now a mounting rebellion of Tory MPs who are demanding Mr Cummings go. They understand the lasting damage this is doing to public confidence in the Tory government and its covid-19 response.
"The SNP will continue to press for a Cabinet Office inquiry into the breaking of the rules and the Downing Street cover-up, which left the public in the dark for so long.
"Polling shows the majority of the public want Mr Cummings to go. With every hour the Prime Minister allows this farce to continue - the Tory government loses more credibility and respect."
READ MORE: Politics LIVE: Dominic Cummings will not resign says Conservative minister
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who was sent out to defend Mr Cummings at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing on Saturday, faced questioning on the adviser’s actions on Sunday but admitted he had not spoken to him beforehand.
The Cabinet minister, in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme, said Mr Cummings was not going to resign.
He also said: “I’m afraid I don’t know (about Barnard Castle) but if that date was true that would have been outside the 14-day period. But I’m afraid I don’t have the information on that.
“But I do know it is not the case that he has travelled backwards and forwards, which seemed to be a major part of the stories I saw in the paper today.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel