Lord Falconer says Dominic Cummings 'unquestionably broke the law'

The Shadow Attorney General Lord Falconer has said Dominic Cummings "unquestionably broke the law" when he travelled to Durham beauty spot Barnard Castle.

Labour has also called on the Attorney General Suella Braverman to apologise after giving her backing to the Prime Minister's aide before the police had commented on the case.

Yesterday Durham Police said officers would have turned back Mr Cummings during his 50-mile round trip to Barnard Castle which he claimed was to check his eyesight before making the longer journey back to London.

Speaking to Channel Four News last night, he said: "It looks on the basis of what Durham Police have said that Dominic Cummings has got away with it."

Adding: "I think he unquestionably broke the law."

Today Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Ms Braverman to apologise saying she had not acted properly.

And he said that Mr Cummings - who helped draft the guidelines - "should never have been in a position where he would have required advice from the police as to their interpretation."

Ms Braverman tweeted on May 23: "Protecting one's family is what any good parent does. The 10DowningStreet statement clarifies the situation and it is wholly inappropriate to politicise it."

Some have argued that by publicly supporting Mr Cummings, she effectively tied the hands of the police.

Mr Thomas-Symonds told Radio Four's Today programme: "The Attorney General was wrong to be out making public statements about an individual case before even the police had made a public statement and particularly given her role as superintendent of the Crown Prosecution Service. She shouldn't have been commenting on an individual case in those circumstances, that's to misunderstand the role of the Attorney General to give unvarnished advice to government without fear or favour and as a bared minimum she should apologise for that."

Mr Thomas-Symonds, himself a lawyer, argued that because no further action would have been taken by the police had they stopped Mr Cummings on his journey did not mean he was acting lawfully.

He explained: "Durham Police statement was clear in that respect. They say they're not taking any action because they do not take action retrospectively which has been applied across the country.

"We know Dominic Cummings in regard to the spirit of the guidelines broke them - nobody interpreted the instruction to stay at home if you were in a household where there was someone experiencing covid symptoms that you could travel 260 miles around the country in anticipation of perhaps needing childcare."

Pressed on whether the PM's adviser broke the law, Mr Thomas-Symonds replied: "The guidelines that were set up he broke them and we know that because the police have told us in that statement had he been intercepted on that journey from the property in Durham to Barnard Castle he would have been stopped and we know the likely advice he would have been given is to return to his house.

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He added: "The reason, by the way, the outcome would have only been a piece of advice isn't to do with breaking or not breaking the law or breaking or not breaking the guidance, it is because the police were taking, quite sensibly in my view, an approach of explaining and encouraging and engaging before they moved to enforcement, so that's why he would have been given a piece of advice, we don't know whether he would have complied with it or not.

"This is the Prime Minister's chief adviser who was central to the drawing up of the guidelines in the first place. He should never have been in a position where he would have required advice from the police as to their interpretation."

But today cabinet minister George Eustice continued to defend Mr Cummings. He told Sky: "I think Dominic Cummings gave a very detailed account of what he did and the judgments he made and why he did what he did on Monday in that very long press conference.

"He acknowledged at the time, look there will be people who will look at the decisions he took and say well was that quite the right thing to do? He might have done differently.

"He acknowledged that and I think really though we just need to move on and I don't think what happened and what he did and what he explained should affect at all people's approach to this."