13 eyebrow-raising moments from Dominic Cummings' coronavirus press conference

Dominic Cummings today gave an unprecedented hour-long press conference - and didn't once say sorry for driving 500 miles in lockdown.

In a lengthy statement in the No10 garden, the PM's chief advisor defended his decision to isolate himself and his family in a home on his father's Durham farm.

He admitted a frantic late-night dash up the A1 - hours after his wife fell sick - despite national advice ordering people to "stay at home", especially if they got ill.

And he admitted he went back into 10 Downing Street in person after visiting his sick wife Mary on March 27.

Once in Durham, he also confessed he drove 30 miles to nearby Barnard Castle, saying it was 15 days after he got sick and it was to test his eyesight. The visit happened to be on his wife's birthday.

Mr Cummings said “I do not regret what I did” but added that “reasonable people may well disagree”.

“No, I have not offered to resign," Mr Cummings declared. “I have not considered it.”

He went on: "I know that the British people hate the idea of unfairness.

"I want to explain what I thought, what I did and why over this period because I know people like me who help to make the rules should be accountable for their actions."

But a spokesman for the Labour Party said: "The British people were looking for at least an apology from Dominic Cummings for breaking the lockdown. They got none.

"Millions of people have made extraordinary sacrifices during the lockdown. Families have been forced apart, sometimes in the most tragic of circumstances. They stayed at home to protect the NHS and save lives.

"And yet, the message from this Government is clear: it's one rule for Boris Johnson's closest adviser, another for everybody else."

Here are the 13 most surprising moments from tonight's press conference.

1. When he admitted going for a 30-mile drive... to check his eyesight

A key part of the story was Mr Cummings' drive to Barnard Castle, 30 miles from where he stayed in Durham, on April 12 - his wife's 45th birthday.

Today he finally confirmed he made that trip - despite government guidance advising against going for a drive at the time.

And his excuse was extraordinary - that he  was driving to test his eyesight.

He claimed it was on Day 15 since illness struck, and was to test his eyesight before going back to London down the A1.

He said his vision had been "a bit weird" so his wife suggested to "drive down the road" to check it.

“It was reasonable and sensible to make a short journey before embarking on a five hour drive”, he said.

Mr Cummings has been reported to police over the trip, which came at the same time people were advised only to leave their house to walk, cycle or run if they were exercising.

"We walked about 10-15 metres from the car to the river bank nearby. We sat there for about 15 minutes - we had no interactions with anybody," he said.

But he admitted his wife and child got out of the car midway home so his son could use the toilet.

"I wasn’t sightseeing. I didn’t go to the castle. I wasn’t walking around," he insisted. "We went for a test drive."

Asked why he didn't just try to drive home, and turn back if he was feeling ill, he said: "We didn't think of doing that, to be honest. We thought 'let's whizz down the road and see how we feel'."

2. When he admitted going back into No10 Street after visiting his sick wife

Dominic Cummings today admitted he went back into 10 Downing Street in person hours after visiting his sick wife.

The PM's top advisor revealed he went into the heart of government, in person, despite visiting his wife Mary because she "felt she might pass out".

He said he ran out of 10 Downing Street and drove home on March 27 because "she told me she suddenly felt badly ill, she vomited and felt she might pass out".

He admitted she "might have Covid", though she did not have a cough and a fever, and he believed there was a "distinct probability" he was already infected.

Yet when she felt "a bit" better that afternoon, Mr Cummings returned to work at 10 Downing Street - directly against guidance for those who might have the virus.

Hours later, on the morning of March 28 - and after he and his wife drove 260 miles to Durham - Mr Cummings fell ill with suspected coronavirus himself.

3. When he insisted he didn't just go to his dad's big farm because it'd be 'nice'

Dominic Cummings travelled 260 miles to his father's sprawling farm - which had three separate properties for his parents; sister and nieces; and him and his wife and child.

Yet he insisted his trip to Durham to isolate was not because the property on his father's farm was a "nice place to be".

"The point about it was not that it was some nice place to be. If you have been there, you would see that it's sort of concrete blocks," he said.

"The point about it was not that it was a nice place to be, but that it was the safest place to be in the circumstances - and it meant that I didn't have to expose other people to risk unless I absolutely had to in a critical emergency."

4. When he said he'd personally warned about the dangers of coronavirus

Mr Cummings used the press conference to hit back at stories claiming he had supported "herd immunity".

He said claims he "did not care about many deaths" were untrue, telling reporters: "The truth is that I had argued for lockdown.

"I did not oppose it, but these stories had created a very bad atmosphere around my home, I was subjected to threats of violence, people came to my house shouting threats, there were posts on social media encouraging attacks."

In fact, Mr Cummings said, "for years I’ve warned of the dangers of pandemics”. He added: "For many years I've been writing about the dangers of pandemics.

"Only last year I wrote explicitly about the danger of coronaviruses. I stressed the importance of government planning and I was worried people were not taking it seriously enough."

5. When he couldn't remember if he stopped for petrol or not

Mr Cummings insisted he "did not stop at all" on the 260-mile drive up to Durham late on March 27.

"I knew that I had a full tank of petrol, I could drive to a place that was completely isolated from everybody else," he said.

And he said he was "95%" sure he stopped to fill up with petrol on the way back but couldn't remember.

"I'm pretty sure we called in and filled up with petrol on the way back," he said. But he added that on the way back, "I'd been cleared to drive back to work" so was not breaking the rules by getting out of the car.

Mr Cummings also admitted he had not taken any medical advice before driving to Durham, though he did take it before driving back.

6. When he couldn't remember what Boris Johnson thought of it all

Mr Cummings said that at "some point" during the first week of his illness, he told Prime Minister Boris Johnson what he had done.

He said they were both so sick that neither of them remember the conversation in any detail.

He added: "I have explained all the above to the Prime Minister.

"At some point during the first week, when we were both sick and in bed, I mentioned to him what I had done.

"Unsurprisingly, given the condition we were in, neither of us remember the conversation in any detail."

He said he did not make his movements public because his London home was "already a target", and he did not want to make his parents' and sister's home a target to "harassment" as well.

The PM's official spokesman said on March 31 that Mr Cummings was "at home", which was untrue.

7. When he was left briefly speechless by a powerful question about single mums

“Of course the public were not stupid to follow the rules and I wasn’t looking for loopholes," he said.

But he did get briefly floored by a question about how his privileged situation compared to ordinary Brits'.

Mirror reporter Nicola Bartlett asked: "There are single parents who've had Covid-19 and had to care for even younger children than you - because that's the situation the found themselves in and they were following the advice issued from this building.

"How can you not feel apologetic towards them for undermining the rules you helped create?"

Stuttering, Mr Cummings answered: "Well, er, er, er, er, er, obviously, um, I feel, um, extreme sympathy for, for single mums who have been in, in, in, in such a terrible situation.

"But all I can do is repeat what I said before - on that evening my wife had just been in a situation where she felt barely able to look after her child. Was essentially surrounded by people either testing positive or had symptoms of Covid. It seemed perfectly likely that I would have it and could not look after a child."

8. When he claimed the media ran with false stories, knowing they were false

Mr Cummings said: "I think there is understandable anger. But a lot of that anger is based on reports in the media that have not been true. And it's extremely regrettable.

"The media were reporting some of these things that were wrong - were told that they were wrong, but they reported them anyway." 

The Mirror and Guardian's first story about Mr Cummings travelling to Durham during lockdown was put to Downing Street for response weeks before publication, but received no comment.

Only after the story this weekend was published did No10 respond. Anonymous sources briefed broadcasters, followed by an official statement the next morning saying Mr Cummings acted "reasonably and legally."

The Sunday Mirror and Observer follow-up story - in which a witness claimed Mr Cummings was spotted in Durham on a second trip up north on April 19, which he denies - also received no official response before publication.

Instead, No10 responded after publication with a statement explicitly saying it wouldn't comment on what was true and what wasn't.

It said: "We will not waste our time answering a stream of false allegations about Mr Cummings from campaigning newspapers."

9. When he claimed his phone data will prove he didn't return to Durham after April 14

Mr Cummings said that during his time in Durham "at no point did any of the three of us enter my parents' house or sister's house".

He said their only exchanges were "shouted conversations at a distance" and his sister left shopping outside for them.

He denied going back to Durham after returning to London on April 13.

He added: "In the last few days there have been many media reports I returned to Durham after April 13.

"All these stories are false. There's a particular report I returned there on April 19. Photos and data on my phone prove this to be false, I was in London on that day."

He didn't make clear who'll be allowed to see his phone data.

10. When he said walking in the woods was okay, because the entire wood is owned by his family

During his two-week isolation, Mr Cummings said he and his family went out for a walk in the woods.

But he said they were woods "owned by my father".

“The walk in the woods was on private land. I didn’t leave our property to go for the walk in the woods - that’s perfectly reasonable behaviour”, he said.

"Some people saw us in these woods from a distance", he said, but there was "no interaction."

11. When he admitted he 'maybe' should have checked with Boris Johnson

Asked if he now wished had checked with the PM before going to Durham, Mr Cummings said: "I don't know is the honest truth about that particular thing. Maybe I should have done."

But he claimed he had to "protect his time".

He added: "The Prime Minister's time is just about the most valuable commodity that exists in the Government, so you have to be very careful about what you go to him with and what you don't go to him with."

He said: "I thought at the time it was the right thing to do, but I also completely understand if people think it was a mistake and that in fact I should have spoken to him about it."

12. When he claimed the guidance was 'explicitly' in his favour

The guidance explicitly said people should only leave home for four reasons - exercise once a day, essential shopping, a medical need, or work.

Yet the Downing Street advisor said: "The rules explicitly say when you're living with small children you have to exercise your judgement."

Mr Cummings said the legal rules did not cover all circumstances, including those he found himself in.

He added: "I thought and I think today that the rules, including those regarding small children in extreme circumstances, allowed me to exercise my judgment about the situation I had found myself in."

He went on: "If you have got a child that's four years old and neither of you can look after him, the guidance doesn't say 'you have just got to sit there'.

"So I think I have behaved reasonably given the circumstances and the different things I had to try and weigh up."

And he said: "I can understand that some people will argue that I should have stayed at home in London throughout.

"I understand these views, I know the intense hardship and sacrifice the entire country has had to go through. However, I respectfully disagree."

The government's own advisors have warned this decision to use his own judgement will fatally undermine advice to the public - and lead to more deaths as people decide they can break lockdown.

13. And finally... when he turned up half an hour late to the sound of a noisemaker

Ever controversial, Mr Cummings turned up half an hour late to his own press conference - while protests blared outside.