Piers Morgan hits out at Dominic Cummings for 'not apologising' in statement

Piers Morgan has hit out at Dominic Cummings for not apologising during his televised statement, after being accused of breaking lockdown rules.

The Prime Minister’s senior aide has come under fire for travelling to Durham, after his wife began experiencing coronavirus symptoms.

He has also been accused of visiting Barnard Castle, 30 miles away from where he was staying, last month.

Mr Cummings has denied that he did anything wrong by travelling more than 250 miles across the country with his wife and son, while potentially carrying the virus and made a statement on Monday at Downing Street.

He explained that he had been worried about his wife and child and had not consulted the Prime Minister before heading to Durham, but believes he acted ‘legally and reasonably’.

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Piers, however, hit out at the MP on Twitter and accused him of trying to take the ‘whole country for morons’ while slamming Mr Cummings for not apologising.

Piers tweeted: ‘This is contemptible. All of it. Millions of people obeyed the rules HE created – and he brazenly ignored them multiple times. Now he’s lying away, playing the victim, and taking the whole country for morons. #cummings.’

‘No apology. For breaking three lockdown rules that HE helped create. Unbelievable. #cummings,’ Piers vented.

He also hit out at Mr Cummings stating he had driven to Barnard Castle to ‘test his eyesight’, adding: ‘If you were ‘testing your eyesight’, why would you put your 4yr-old child in the car for an hour when by then it was OK for him to stay with family?’

Piers added that he finds it ‘staggering’ Mr Cummings said the idea of resigning following his actions ‘hadn’t crossed his mind’.

Many celebs took to Twitter to share their views on Mr Cummings’ lengthy statement, with David Baddiel joking: ‘This is a bit like the worst end-of-year “what happened to our family” round-robin email ever.’

Comedian Kathy Burke teased: ‘Worst bank holiday film I’ve seen in yonks.’

Josh Widdicombe likened his circumstances – that saw him experience symptoms of Covid-19 while his wife was ill and the pair having to look after a toddler – to Mr Cummings and argued they had not been ‘exceptional circumstances’ requiring lockdown rule breaks.

He tweeted: ‘For the record, my wife was ill throwing up and I had symptoms of covid in first week of lockdown.

‘We have a toddler. THESE WERE NOT EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES, it felt like what was happening to lots of people.’

Mr Cummings televised statement had aired for over an hour and started 30 minutes late, prompting many to comment on social media and poke fun at his controversial trip to Durham while waiting.

Former Big Brother’s Bit On The Side host Rylan Clarke-Neal tweeting: ‘If we kept an eviction waiting this long we’d be slaughtered.’

Jack Whitehall joked: ‘Dominic Cummings is late for his statement because there’s traffic on the A1.’

Gary Lineker teased: ‘Press conference running late, but in Cummings defence, it’s a long drive from Durham.’

Others commented on the inconvenient background noise that could be heard during Mr Cummings statement, with Nick Grimshaw tweeting: ‘wtf is that noise???? who’s blowing the bagpipes?’

After the allegations emerged of Mr Cummings breaking lockdown restrictions on more than one occasion, a number of Tory MPs began calling for him to be sacked by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

At the time of Mr Cummings’ alleged journeys, the UK was still under strict lockdown rules only allowing people to leave their homes to exercise close buy, to go to work or to shop for essentials.

Mr Cummings insists he adhered to social distancing guidelines during the trips he had taken and said he doesn’t regret his actions.

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