Dominic Cummings will deliver a public statement and take questions today after he was accused of breaking lockdown restrictions on more than one occasion.

The Prime Minister’s most senior aide travelled to Durham at the end of March with his wife and son after they started showing coronavirus symptoms. He is then accused of visiting Barnard Castle, 30 miles away from where he was staying, on April 12.

Downing Street confirmed that Mr Cummings then returned to London on April 14, but another witness claims they saw him admiring the bluebells in the woods near Houghall, in County Durham, on April 19.

After the allegations emerged, a series of Tory MPs began calling for Mr Cummings to be sacked by the Prime Minister for breaking lockdown restrictions. At the time, people were only allowed to leave their homes if they had a ‘reasonable excuse’, such as exercising close by, buying food or going to work.

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Under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020, brought in just days before Mr Cummings went to Durham, police officers have the power to arrest or issue fines to anyone not following lockdown restrictions.

However, Mr Cummings has denied that he did anything wrong by travelling more than 250 miles across the country while potentially carrying the virus. He told reporters he needed to ensure he had childcare for his son, and behaved ‘reasonably and legally’ in doing so.

When asked if he thought his actions looked good, he said: ‘Who cares about good looks? It’s a question of doing the right thing. It’s not about what you guys think.’

Mr Cummings’ words were later backed by Boris Johnson himself, who began Sunday’s press conference by confirming that his senior aide would not be losing his job. He said his adviser acted ‘responsibly, legally and with integrity’, adding that he ‘followed the instincts of every parent’ and would not be ‘marked down’ as a result.

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