Junior UK minister Douglas Ross has resigned from the British government over the controversy surrounding Boris Johnson’s senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, who travelled more than 250 miles from his London home during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown in March.
“I have just tendered my resignation from the UK government and my position as Under Secretary of State for Scotland,” Ross wrote in a letter posted to his official Twitter account on Tuesday.
“There was much I still hoped to do in this role but events over the last few days mean I can no longer serve as a member of this government,” he added.
Ross’ resignation follows a press statement made by Cummings on Monday, in which the aide admitted to travelling to Durham in northern England during the lockdown, despite the fact that his wife was ill.
Cummings said he made the trip to ensure the welfare of his child, asserting that while his wife had fallen ill in London, she did not have symptoms of coronavirus.
“I was worried that if both my wife and I were seriously ill, possibly hospitalized, there is nobody in London that we could reasonably ask to look after our child and expose themselves to Covid,” Cummings said.
Ross said that while Cummings’ intentions “may have been well meaning,” the subsequent reaction to the news “shows that Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked.”
“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 guidelines of the government,” Ross added.
“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior advisor to the government was right.”
