More than one million people have backed a public call for Dominic Cummings to be sacked.
A petition lodged on change.org passed the million mark on Friday evening, and is now aiming to reach 1.5m signatures.
Names were added after it emerged Cummings had travelled from London to Durham in April to be close to potential childcare and then to nearby town Barnard Castle.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing increasing pressure to sack his chief aide, however the PM has instead backed Cummings and said he had “acted responsibly, legally and with integrity” and that “any parent would frankly understand what he did”.
At 11am on Saturday, the number of signatures was sitting at 1,042,137.
READ MORE: Crash victims lodge complaint over Dominic Cummings' lockdown 60-mile drive with 'affected' vision
Organisers said that now the petition has reached its initial target, they have taken their pleas to the UK government.
They wrote: "The people's petition has reached 1 million signatures we have asked the UK government to allow a UK petition to have this matter addressed by elected MPs about this unelected public servant."
Sharing the petition on Monday, when the figure sat at around a quarter of its current number, SNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford tweeted: “There cannot be one rule for the Tory government and another for the rest of us. Over 240,000 people have already signed this petition. You can add your voice to tell @BorisJohnson we won’t be treated like fools”
A survey found earlier this week that more than 80% of parents would not - and did not - travel for emergency childcare during lockdown.
READ MORE: 81% of parents ‘would not have travelled for lockdown emergency childcare’, survey finds
Almost a quarter of people polled said they had been in similar circumstances to Dominic Cummings.
A survey of 965 Mumsnet users with at least one child found that the majority either did not or would not have travelled for emergency childcare.
23% of those questioned said they had found themselves in a situation where one parent was ill and the other suspected they may become ill too, whilst both were caring for a young child - however, they did not travel for emergency back up.
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