Dominic Cummings: Minister Douglas Ross quits

Dominic Cummings – Junior minister Douglas Ross has resigned after Dominic Cummings’ defence of his trip to County Durham during the coronavirus lockdown.

The Scotland Office minister said the senior aide’s view of the government guidance was “not shared by the vast majority of people”.

No 10 said the prime minister regretted Mr Ross’ decision to stand down.

It comes as more than 30 Tory MPs have called on Mr Cummings to resign.

Six opposition leaders have said in a letter to Boris Johnson that removing Mr Cummings from his post is the only way to restore trust in public health advice.

Mr Cummings explained on Monday why he drove 260 miles in March from his London home to his parents’ farm with his child and ill wife.

In a statement announcing his resignation, Mr Ross, who remains Conservative MP for Moray, said: “While the intentions may have been well-meaning, the reaction to this news shows that Mr Cummings’ interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked.”

“I have constituents who didn’t get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn’t visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government.

“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.”

A No 10 spokesman said: “The prime minister would like to thank Douglas Ross for his service to government and regrets his decision to stand down as parliamentary under secretary of state for Scotland.”

Labour’s shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said Mr Ross had done the “decent thing”, while the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said he respected Mr Ross and called for Mr Cummings to be removed “without further delay”.

At a news conference in the garden of 10 Downing Street on Monday afternoon, Mr Cummings said he did not regret his actions and believed he acted reasonably and legally.

On the subject of why he then drove his family to the town of Barnard Castle – 15 days after he had displayed symptoms – Mr Cummings said he was testing his eyesight to see if he could make the trip back down to London. He explained that he had experienced some eyesight problems during his illness.

Source – https://www.bbc.com/news/