Responding to reports that Dominic Cummings ignored coronavirus lockdown rules to visit his parents more than 250 miles away, Munira Wilson MP said:
Hundreds of local residents have been in touch with me to express their fury and dismay at the news that the Prime Minister’s most senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, travelled from London to Durham when his wife was unwell with coronavirus and he himself was asymptomatic. This was flagrantly in breach of the government’s guidelines. The subsequent defence of Mr Cummings mounted by members of the cabinet and Mr Johnson himself on Sunday night has understandably caused even more anger.
Many residents have written to me with exceptionally moving accounts of being unable to be with loved ones when they were dying, unable to attend funerals of loved ones, unable to care for close family members who are physically or mentally unwell, unable to allow relatives to come and help with childcare when parents have been poorly. I wanted to say to all of you THANK YOU. Thank you for doing the right thing, for following the guidance and protecting all of us.
I am so proud of how we have responded locally as a community to this crisis, both by abiding by the guidance but also for helping and supporting each other and key workers in our time of need.
I share your rage that those at the top of government who are making the decisions or advising on the decisions think that it is one rule for them and one rule for the rest of us. There absolutely is not. I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues have all called publicly on Dominic Cummings to resign and if not, for Boris Johnson to sack him. I have also written to the Prime Minister in no uncertain terms.
I will continue to press this issue strongly on your behalf, as so many of you have requested. It is simply not acceptable that Cummings continue in his post, without regret or apology. Most importantly, the public health guidance is now at serious risk of unravelling, potentially putting more lives at risk.