British police said on Thursday Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s primary aide Dominic Cummings had committed a “minor” offense while traveling to a scenic spot at the height of coronavirus isolation and had closed the matter politically explosive.
The Brexit campaign master created a political scandal when the newspapers discovered that he had left London and that he had traveled across the country to stay with his parents in early April.
His wife believed at the time that she was suffering from the virus and Cummings himself developed symptoms a few days later.
Government orders were for those who suspected they had the virus to stay home for at least a week, but Cummings said the rules allowed him to leave home to care for his son’s children four years old.
Johnson’s most trusted and trusted advisor – dubbed by some media Britain’s second most powerful man – held an unusual press conference on Monday during which he made no apologies and blamed the media to have distorted his case.
Durham Constabulary said on Thursday that he “does not consider that by entering his father’s premises, Mr. Cummings has committed an offense”.
However, he added that “there may have been a minor breach” when the family drove to a local beauty spot after his recovery.
Cummings explained that he had blurred vision and decided to test his vision by driving to Barnard Castle before returning to London in April.
The local police department said it had “examined the circumstances surrounding the trip to Barnard Castle … and concluded that there may have been a minor regulatory violation that warranted police intervention.
“Durham Constabulary considers this to be minor because there has been no apparent violation of social distance,” he said in a statement.
The Durham Police Department said it had “no intention of taking retrospective action” because doing so “would treat Mr. Cummings differently from other members of the public.”
The police findings could still pose a political problem for the British leader.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
