The rule of modern politics, let’s call it Trump’s first law, is that if you are being attacked for apparently breaking the rules, the best defence is to double down and insist that it is in fact you and your colleagues who have acted with the utmost integrity – and anyone who suggests otherwise is a knave or a fool.
Such was how the prime minister defended his chief aide Dominic Cummings – who as I said just now in the daily Downing Street press conference breached not just one but at least three lockdown rules (don’t leave the house if someone in it has Covid-19 symptoms, don’t spend hours in very close proximity in a confined space like a car with a sufferer and don’t go to a second home).
The PM said of Cummings’ 260 mile car journey from London to Durham: “In travelling to find the right kind of childcare, at the moment when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by Coronavirus, and when he had no alternative, I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent.
“And I do not mark him down for that…I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly and legally and with integrity, and with the overwhelming aim of stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives”.
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