Boris Johnson has continued to stand by his top adviser despite allegations that he repeatedly broke lockdown rules.

During today’s daily No 10 press briefing, the prime minister said following a day of meetings with Dominic Cummings, he believed he did the right thing by travelling 260 miles to his parents’ home in Durham with his wife, who was suffering with coronavirus symptoms, and their four-year-old son.

Pressure has been mounting on Mr Johnson over the weekend, as his own party turned on him today calling for Mr Cummings to be sacked over the allegations.

Mr Johnson said: ‘I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent and I do not mark him down for that’.

He batted away further allegations that Mr Cummings broke lockdown rules calling them ‘palpably false’.

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Mr Johnson said: ‘I want to begin by answering the big question that people have been asking in the last 48 hours and that is: Is this government asking you, the public, to do one thing while senior people here in government do something else.

‘Have we been asking you to make sacrifices to obey social distancing, stay at home, while some people have been basically flouting those rules and endangering lives.

‘And it’s because I take this matter so seriously, and frankly it is so serious, that I can tell you today I have had extensive face-to-face conversations with Dominic Cummings and I have concluded that in travelling to find the right kind of childcare at the moment when both he and his wife were about to incapacitated by coronavirus, and when he had no alternative, I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent. I do not mark him down for that.

‘And though there have been many other allegations about what happened when he was in self-isolation and thereafter, some of them palpably false, I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly and legally and with integrity.’

When pressed further by journalists alleging Mr Cummings did break lockdown rules, Mr Johnson insisted ‘as far as I can see he acted legally and responsibly’ and ‘stuck to the rules’.

He repeatedly shut down allegations that Mr Cummings flouted rules by travelling to a beauty spot and heading up to Durham a second time after returning to work at Downing Street, Mr Johnson said the allegations don’t ‘seem to correspond remotely with reality’.

Mr Johnson said Mr Cummings had no alternative but to drive up to Durham due to ‘very severe childcare difficulties’.

He continued: ‘Yes it did involved travel but I have to say looking at the situation any father any parent would frankly understand what he did, I certainly do and spent a lot of time talking to him about it today.’

Mr Cummings had driven from his north London home to his parents’ in Durham home in late March.

Downing Street insisted he ‘stayed put’ for 14 days at his parents’ property and that he made the trip as he needed childcare support. But eyewitness accounts have suggested he flouted rules twice after the first journey.

One person told the Observer and the Mirror that they saw Mr Cummings and his family walking along the River Tees in Barnard Castle, on April 12. He was then seen returning to work at Downing Street on April 14.

A second witness claimed they spotted him back near his parents’ home on a walk with his wife on April 19 – suggesting he made a second trip travelling hundreds of miles to the north east.

Following the fresh allegations, No 10 said ‘we will not waste our time answering a stream of false allegations about Mr Cummings from campaigning newspapers’.

This is a breaking news story, more to follow…

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