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May 27, 2020

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UK minister quits at PM aide’s road trip

Douglas Ross, a junior minister in the UK’s Scotland Office, resigned yesterday, saying the prime minister’s senior adviser’s explanation of why he traveled during the coronavirus lockdown was based on decisions “others felt were not available to them.”

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s closest adviser, refused to resign on Monday, saying he had done nothing wrong by driving 400 kilometers to northern England when Britain was under a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Johnson, who worked with Cummings on the campaign to leave the European Union, has stood by his adviser, saying at the weekend that the aide had followed the “instincts of every father” when he traveled with his wife for help with childcare.

Ross, a junior minister, said in a letter he accepted Cummings’ statement on Monday when he “clarified the actions he took in what he felt were the best interests of his family. However, these were decisions many others felt were not available to them.”

“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 Downing Street spokesman said: “The prime minister would like to thank Douglas Ross for his service ... and regrets his decision to stand down as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland.”

Cummings’ travel has prompted fury among some in Britain, and several lawmakers from the governing Conservative Party have criticized him.




 

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