'Dominic Cummings must go' - Tory MP calls on Boris Johnson to sack his top adviser

A Conservative MP is calling for Boris Johnson's top adviser to resign or be sacked amid more claims he broke lockdown rules.

Dominic Cummings claims he acted "reasonably and legally" by driving more than 300 kilometres from London to County Durham while his wife had coronavirus symptoms.

Downing Street said reports in The Observer and Sunday Mirror that he made a second trip there are "inaccurate".

Steve Baker said Mr Cummings "must go".

He tweeted: “It is intolerable that Boris’ government is losing so much political capital. Three changes are immediately required: 1 – Govt needs competitive expert advice 2 – Govt must insist on high software engineering standards 3 – Dominic Cummings must go.”

It is intolerable that Boris’ government is losing so much political capital. Three changes are immediately required:

1 - Govt needs competitive expert advice

2 - Govt must insist on high software engineering standards

3 - Dominic Cummings must gohttps://t.co/zUOCVcDAmN

— Rt Hon Steve Baker FRSA 🗽 (@SteveBakerFRSA) May 24, 2020

Writing for The Critic Magazine, Mr Baker said allegations of a further breach in the Sunday papers were a “disaster” and Mr Cummings “clearly broke at the very least the guidance which kept mums and dads at home”.

He added: “Dominic Cummings must go before he does any more harm to the UK, the Government, the Prime Minister, our institutions or the Conservative Party.

“Time is up. It is time for Dom to resign so Boris can govern within the conventions and norms which will see us through.”

Speaking on the Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Mr Baker said: “If he doesn’t resign, we’ll just keep burning through Boris’s political capital at a rate we can ill afford in the midst of this crisis,” he said.

“It is very clear that Dominic travelled when everybody else understood Dominic’s slogans to mean ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’.

"I don't see...how this is going to go away unless Dominic goes"

"Everyone else understood Dominic's slogans to mean stay at home" says Conservative @SteveBakerHW and "mums and dads...will wonder why he's been able to do this". He thinks the No.10 adviser should resign.#Ridge pic.twitter.com/gdnG4o6vRz

— Ridge & Frost (@RidgeandFrost) May 24, 2020

“And I think mums and dads who very much care about their children and who have been forgoing the childcare of their extended family will wonder why he has been allowed to do this.

“I really just don’t see, as we approach the Prime Minister (appearing) at the liaison committee on Wednesday, how this is going to go away unless Dominic goes.”

"No one is indispensable, Dominic should go and we should have a chief of staff to the PM who doesn't end up in the newspapers in this way."

@SteveBakerHW says the story involving Dominic Cummings is "diverting from the real issues". #Ridge https://t.co/JwYiKcNiml pic.twitter.com/DP2w0uu14W

— Ridge & Frost (@RidgeandFrost) May 24, 2020

Mr Baker, MP for Wycombe, said: “I’m afraid I just think this is the end of the road. I objected to Dominic going into Number 10 on the day Boris became PM, my colleagues weren’t with me. I think it’s worked out badly, as it was bound to do.

“Dominic’s tactics are out of place and he should go, and this moment has revealed that really he has ended up not abiding by the spirit at least of the slogans which he has enforced on the rest of the country.”