A Fife-based scientist advising the government has warned people will die as a result of Dominic Cumming’s actions and the government’s defence of them.
Professor Stephen Reicher, of St Andrews University, said Cummings’ 260-mile trip to his parents’ home in Durham during lockdown suggested there was “one rule for them and one rule for us”.
He launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s defence on Sunday evening, in which he insisted his chief advisor had “acted responsibly and with integrity” when he travelled for childcare as his wife showed coronavirus symptoms.
Prof Reicher is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) which is advising and providing analysis to the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).
Speaking to Good Morning Britain from his Fife home, he said the “debacle” of the last couple of days as Cummings’ alleged breach was exposed had “fatally undermined” the sense of common good which made people adhere to lockdown restrictions.
He said: “The real issue here is that because of these actions, because of undermining trust in the government, because of undermining adherence to those rules that we all need to follow, people are going to die, more people are going to die.”
The professor of social psychology said people stuck to lockdown rules not to protect themselves but because of a “sense that we are all in this together”.
He said: “If you give the impression there’s one rule for them and one rule for us you fatally undermine that sense of ‘we are all in this together’ and you undermine adherence to the forms of behaviour which have got us through this crisis.”
He said research showed that 44% of the British public were suffering in lockdown, and added: “When the going got tough they didn’t break that lockdown, they kept lockdown despite it being difficult because they did it for the common good.
“And if now the government turns round and says ‘oh well, actually when the going gets tough it’s fine not to make those sacrifices’, if everybody had done that then we wouldn’t have flattened the curve and many, many more people would be dying.”
Prof Reicher also took to Twitter to attack Johnson’s defence of Cumming’s during his press conference on Sunday evening.
As one of those involved in SPI-B, the Government advisory group on behavioural science, I can say that in a few short minutes tonight, Boris Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control COVID-19.
— Stephen Reicher (@ReicherStephen) May 24, 2020
He said: “As one of those involved in SPI-B, the Government advisory group on behavioural science, I can say that in a few short minutes tonight, Boris Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control Covid-19.”
Advice to the government to be open and honest, to respect the public, to ensure equity and be consistent had all been “trashed”, he wrote.
He also said: “It is very hard to provide scientific advice to a government which doesn’t want to listen to science.
“I hope, however, that the public will read our papers and continue to make up for this bad government with their own good sense.”
