Dominic Cummings fails to apologise and has no regrets over flouting lockdown rules
by Karen HylandDowning Street senior aide Dominic Cummings arrived at his own press conference to explain his widely condemned actions during lockdown 30 minutes late.
Over the weekend news broke that Boris Johnson's right-hand man had travelled 260 miles from London to his parents' home in Durham.
At 4.30pm on Bank Holiday Monday, he strolled into No 10 Downing Street's rose garden to explain his decision to do so, while the rest of the nation dutifully followed guidelines he had helped to put together.
Cummings read out a statement from loose sheets of paper, explaining both he and his wife, Mary, were unwell ahead of their journey and they were concerned about who would care for their four-year-old son.
Insisting he had done nothing wrong and had no regrets, he said "in all the circumstances I behaved reasonably and legally".
Cummings added: "Yesterday I gave a full account to the Prime Minister of my actions between the 27th of March and the 14th of April.
"I should have made this statement earlier. I did not ask the PM about this decision.
"He was ill himself and had huge problems to deal with.
"My wife felt on the edge of not being able to look after him [our son] safely.
"I was thinking, 'what if the same or worse happens to me?'. The regulations made clear the risks to a small child.
"I had a way of dealing with this that minimised risk to others and was worried about leaving my child at home in the night.
"I thought the best thing was to drive to an isolated cottage on my father’s farm."
After delivering his statement, Cummings invited questions from the press and failed to offer an apology when one reporter asked if he would.
He also insisted that at no point did he consider resigning from his government position and Prime Minister Boris Johnson had not asked him to.
Many Brits, including TV news anchors, were furious with the lack of apology or apparent contrition...
Cummings slammed on Twitter
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