“Dominic Cummings must go” — that’s the verdict from Wycombe MP Steve Baker after it emerged the Prime Minister’s top adviser broke lockdown rules.
Mr Cummings twice ignored social distancing measures he helped create after taking trips to Durham from London in April despite he himself being diagnosed with coronavirus.
An investigation by the Sunday Mirror and the Observer revealed the adviser drove almost 300 miles on two occasions at the height of the pandemic.
The government claims Mr Cummings was visiting relatives in Durham who were helping care for his son while he and his wife were ill.
But this has not convinced Conservative MP Steve Baker, who this morning tweeted “Dominic Cummings must go”.
It is intolerable that Boris’ government is losing so much political capital. Three changes are immediately required:
— Steve Baker MP (@SteveBakerHW) May 24, 2020
1 - Govt needs competitive expert advice
2 - Govt must insist on high software engineering standards
3 - Dominic Cummings must gohttps://t.co/zUOCVcDAmN
Writing for The Critic magazine, the pro-Brexit MP, who worked alongside Cummings at Vote Leave during the EU referendum, wrote: "Dominic Cummings must go before he does any more harm to the UK, the Government, the Prime Minister, our institutions or the Conservative Party.
"It is time for Dom to resign so Boris can govern within the conventions and norms which will see us through.
"It is time to get competing expert advice, decent software and better decisions, end the lockdown and start a long, hard recovery."
The Wycombe MP also appeared on news programmes this morning pushing the case for Cummings to resign.
Speaking to Sophie Ridge on Sky News, he said: "I represent tens of thousands of people, many of whom will have had children and wives and husbands who were ill with coronavirus and isolated at home without travelling to get better childcare.
"I can hold a single father in mind immediately who stayed at home and who didn't travel. It's been extremely tough for those people.
"I don't see...how this is going to go away unless Dominic goes"
— Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) May 24, 2020
"Everyone else understood Dominic's slogans to mean stay at home" says Conservative @SteveBakerHW and "mums and dads...will wonder why he's been able to do this". He thinks the No.10 adviser should resign.#Ridge pic.twitter.com/gdnG4o6vRz
"No one is indispensable, Dominic should go and we should have a chief of staff to the Prime Minister who doesn't end up in the newspapers in this way."
Mr Baker's call for Cummings to resign follows a string of supportive messages from cabinet members including Michael Gove, Rishi Sunak and Dominic Raab backing the adviser yesterday.
But now almost a dozen Tory MPs have gone against the cabinet in calling for Cummings to go, with Wycombe member of parliament Steve Baker leading the way.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning, he added: "He's not indispensable, no one is.
"The graveyards are littered with people who were thought indispensable.
“I’m afraid it hasn’t been a success trying to save him”
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 24, 2020
Conservative MP Steve Baker says the Prime Minister’s aide Dominic Cummings is “not indispensible”, saying “Dominic should just save us all this trouble, he should go, he should go today”https://t.co/TqE5ZdUf0F pic.twitter.com/wcUYJp8ZLU
"Dominic should save us all this trouble, he should go and he should go today."
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