'HAVE TO DRAW A LINE'

Frontline coronavirus doctor threatens to quit unless Dominic Cummings resigns saying ‘He’s not done his bit’

A FRONTLINE coronavirus doctor has today threatened to quit unless Dominic Cummings resigns.

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Boris Johnson last night sad he had cleared his most senior adviser of any wrongdoing and branded his actions "sensible and defensible".

But Dr Pimenta said he was outraged that the PM had defended Mr Cummings after Brits had "sacrificed so much" to fight the deadly bug.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, the medic said: "I can't countenance a system where there is such a flagrant disregard.

"I have to draw a line, I cannot accept that."

And he said he would have liked to see an apology, adding: "To throw that all in the wind is incredibly insulting to myself to all NHS staff and everyone in this country who has given so much."

The doctor had yesterday shared a photograph of himself kitted out in full PPE gear.

He wrote: "This is me right now heading back into the covid ICU I’ve worked for the last two months.

"This stuff is hot and hard work. Haven’t seen my parents since January.

"Frankly, Cummings spits in the face of all our efforts, the whole #NHS. If he doesn’t resign, I will."

Mr Cummings is accused of ignoring strict government advice by driving his virus-stricken wife from London to self-isolate at his family farm near Durham.

He spent five hours holed up in No 10 yesterday, fuelling speculation he was about to quit.

But Boris emerged to tell the nation he was standing by his man, who he said was only trying to protect his four-year-old son.

Hosting a tense evening No 10 briefing, Boris dismissed growing calls for an official inquiry.

Instead he insisted Mr Cummings had acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity”, and “stuck to the rules”.

The PM added: “He followed the instinct of every father and every parent, and I do not mark him down for that.”

But that enraged some Cabinet ministers, who are aligning with Tory MPs to demand that Mr Cummings is sacked.

One minister said: “Cummings is going to burn us all. He cannot stay.

"There has to be some contrition from Boris too or he will spend the next ten weeks having to answer questions about it all.

“This is not a bubble story. Real people are furious, because they have been doing the right thing and isolating.”

A second minister added: “The test is simple: Is retaining Cummings a sign of strength or weakness? It’s increasingly looking like the latter.”

Mr Cummings admits making a 260-mile trip to County Durham last month after wife Mary fell ill with Covid-19 symptoms.

But he furiously denies breaching the lockdown he helped mastermind — saying he made the trip over childcare concerns.

He has refused to answer claims he was spotted 30 miles from Durham at Barnard Castle on April 12 — another apparent breach of the rules not to take unnecessary journeys.