UK junior minister quits over PM adviser’s lockdown drive

Douglas Ross, a junior minister in the Scotland Office, resigned from the British government on Tuesday over the handling of accusations that the prime minister’s senior adviser had broken the coronavirus lockdown by travelling for help with childcare.

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s closest adviser, refused to resign on Monday, saying he had done nothing wrong by driving 250 miles to northern England when Britain was under a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of the infection.

Ross said in a letter he accepted Cummings’ statement when he “clarified the actions he took in what he felt were the best interests of his family” but he added: “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.”