'People will die' after Boris defends Cummings for 'undermining lockdown'

A government psychologist has said ‘more people are going to die’ after the Dominic Cummings ‘debacle’ undermined the government’s coronavirus restrictions.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, Professor Stephen Reicher said Boris Johnson’s defence of the senior aide’s 250-mile trip to Durham had ‘fatally undermined’ efforts to protect the UK from Covid-19.

He continued: ‘If you look at the research it shows the reason why people observed lockdown was not for themselves, it wasn’t because they were personally at risk, they did it for the community, they did it because of a sense of “we’re all in this together”.

‘If you give the impression there’s one rule for them and one rule for us you fatally undermine that sense of “we’re all in this together” and you undermine adherence to the forms of behaviour which have got us through this crisis.’

Visit our live blog for the latest updates: Coronavirus news live

He added: ‘The real issue here is that because of these actions, because of undermining trust in the Government, because of undermining adherence to the rules that we all need to follow, people are going to die. More people are going to die.’

On Sunday Professor Reicher, who is a member of the government’s advisory group on behavioural science, wrote on Twitter that Johnson’s defence of Cummings had ‘trashed’ all their advice on how to ‘build trust and secure adherence’ to coronavirus measures in the UK.

He went on: ‘Be open and honest, we said. Trashed. Respect the public, we said. Trashed. Ensure equity, so everyone is treated the same, we said. Trashed. Be consistent we said. Trashed. Make clear “we are all in it together”. Trashed.’

His words appeared to strike a chord with people, with more than 73,000 liking his tweet amid the backlash directed at Johnson after the press conference. The Prime Minister confirmed on Sunday evening that no action would be taken towards Mr Cummings.

Instead, he defended Mr Cummings’ journey to Durham in March, stating that he thought he had behaved ‘responsibly, legally and with integrity’. He added that the adviser had ‘followed the instincts of every parent’ by travelling with his child and would not be ‘marked down’ as a result.

The Prime Minister did not specifically comment on other allegations that Mr Cummings broke lockdown to visit Barnard Castle on April 12, or went back to Durham on April 19, five days after returning to London.

Johnson only said ‘some’ of the claims about the aide’s behaviour were ‘palpably false’, before adding that he had acted with the ‘overwhelming aim of stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.