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ANALYSIS: By standing by Dominic Cummings the Prime Minister has failed to grasp what Catherine Calderwood understood

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's senior aid Dominic Cummings leaves his north London home.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's senior aid Dominic Cummings leaves his north London home.

If there was a saving grace from Catherine Calderwood’s terrible lapse of judgement when she flouted her own lockdown rules, it was that her resignation came quickly.

Her swift departure as Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) after making trips to her holiday house in Earlsferry, at least underlined that the “Stay at Home” message was for real. Her public humiliation was a graphic reminder that breaking the rules was a very serious matter.

Dr Catherine Calderwood.

As she struggled in vain to save her career, the former CMO  declared the fact that she had made two visits to her second home in the East Neuk of Fife. She did that to pre-empt any further embarrassing revelations. She also apologised profusely within hours of the news breaking. Despite her apology, the reaction to her behaviour made it abundantly clear that she could not continue taking the country through the coronavirus crisis without undermining her own life-saving advice.

In contrast, the furore over Dominic Cummings’s 260-mile trip to Durham at the height of the pandemic has lingered. Now, thanks to Boris Johnson’s defence of his aide, the damaging controversy has escalated dramatically.

Given the extraordinary sacrifices that have been made by the British public during the outbreak, the sophistry surrounding arguments that he was acting to protect his family has been insulting.

Why, for example, should Mr Cummings think it was acceptable to travel to the north-east of England when 13-year-old Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab died from the virus without his family by his bedside at King’s College Hospital, London?

 

Tory MPs could see the damage Mr Cummings’s behaviour had caused and several called for him to go.

By standing by him, Boris Johnson has caused outrage, misread the public mood and has added to the feeling that he does not have a proper grip on the Covid-19 crisis.

But it is worse than that. Mr Johnson appears prepared to undermine the UK Government messaging that is so important when it comes to dealing with this deadly illness. At a crucial time when lockdown restrictions are being eased, it is more important than ever that the public can trust the advice coming out of Downing Street as it becomes more nuanced and complex.

Astonishingly, the prime minister has sabotaged that fragile trust by letting this row rumble on. That sort of arrogance and defiance, as Dr Calderwood well understood, could prove extremely dangerous.