Voice of the Mirror: Arrogant Boris' stance on lockdown flouting aide is deplorable

The Prime Minister’s appearance before the Liaison Committee was not just lamentable. It was deeply insulting.

There was no apology for the behaviour of Dominic Cummings.

There was no acknowledgement of the anger it caused and no acceptance that it had undermined the Government’s message at a crucial moment in the battle against coronavirus.

Calls for an inquiry were swatted away with the arrogance of an oligarch bored of counting his money.

The Prime Minister repeatedly claimed the allegations against Cummings were false.

When asked to substantiate this allegation he declined.

Yet as this paper has accurately reported, Cummings did flout the lockdown restrictions, the police did speak to his family and he did make a trip, against the clear instructions, to Barnard Castle.

When this defence failed, Mr Johnson resorted to the cheapest trick in the book by accusing anyone asking perfectly legitimate questions of playing party politics.

Nobody is playing a game here. There is genuine concern that the public will lose faith in the lockdown measures which could result in a second spike and yet more deaths.

On Thursday the Government will roll out its test and trace programme that will require hundreds of thousands of people to self-isolate for 14 days, whether they are infected or not.

Mr Johnson was hesitant to say whether this was compulsory or not – it will, in fact, be voluntary – because he knows he can no longer tell the public what to do when his chief adviser is making the rules up as he goes along.

The PM’s unflinching decision to stand by Cummings is not something to be admired.

It is the act of an egotist who has placed the career of one person ahead of the general good.

This would be objectionable at the best of times. The fact he is doing it in the middle of a public health emergency is deplorable.

Mr Johnson has lost the moral authority to tell people to do their civic duty.

For that reason alone, Cummings has to go.