UK minister quits in protest as pressure mounts on PM Boris Johnson to sack top aide Dominic Cummings over lockdown trip
- UK PM’s chief adviser left London while coronavirus lockdown travel restrictions where in place
- Scandal threatens to undermine PM Boris Johnson, who faces blowback from own party
A junior minister in Boris Johnson’s government resigned in protest on Tuesday as public pressure mounted on the UK prime minister to sack his top adviser who apparently broke coronavirus lockdown rules by driving across the country.
Johnson’s closest aide Dominic Cummings triggered a political firestorm when it was revealed he made a 430km secret road trip to his parents’ farm in Durham in the north of England on March 27, with his child and wife while she was suffering from the coronavirus.
The trip came shortly after Johnson himself announced he had the illness, and just four days after the UK went into lockdown.
Johns Douglas Ross, a minister for Scotland, quit in protest as Johnson faced a rebellion from MPs in his own party over the controversy.
“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,” Ross said in a statement.
“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.”