Dominic Cummings: The four most puzzling lines from aide’s statement

Boris Johnson’s top adviser offered up some unusual answers to questions about his 500-mile round trip during lockdown

Boris Johnson’s top adviser, Dominic Cummings, faced questions from the media on Monday over his 260-mile trip to Durham at the height of the coronavirus lockdown.

Mr Cummings used an unprecedented briefing at Downing Street to defend his decision to drive his wife and young son to his parents' farm to self-isolate.

Often a controversial figure, it was unsurprising that the key aide to the prime minister raised eyebrows with some of his statements during the conference.

Here were some of the most puzzling moments from Cummings’ rose garden briefing.

Said he drove to Barnard Castle to ‘test his eyesight’

When quizzed about a drive he took with his wife and son from the family farm to a local beauty spot, Barnard Castle, the former Vote Leave campaign director offered up an unusual explanation.

He said his eyesight had been affected by his illness with which he had been suffering and took the roughly 30-minute trip to check he would be able to undertake the journey back to London.

He added: “My wife was very worried, particularly as my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. She did not want to risk a nearly 300-mile drive with our child given how ill I had been.

“We agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if I could drive safely, we drove for roughly half an hour and ended up on the outskirts of Barnard Castle town. We did not visit the castle, we did not walk around the town.”

Mr Cummings said he had felt a “bit sick” so they had walked about 10 to 15 metres to the riverbank where they sat for about 15 minutes until he felt better.

Claimed he had previously warned of coronavirus pandemic

Mr Cummings used the briefing to insist he, contrary to some reports, had not resisted the introduction of lockdown measures and had in fact previously warned of the dangers of a coronavirus pandemic.

“For years, I have warned of the dangers of pandemics. Last year I wrote about the possible threat of coronaviruses and the urgent need for planning,” he said.

Mr Cummings wrote an entry on his blog in March 2019, which more specifically examined the possibility of a deadly outbreak being triggered by a coronavirus accidentally released from a laboratory during scientific experiments. However, there have been suggestions that the reference to coronavirus was actually added to the blog in April 2020.

Scientists currently believe Sars-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19, jumped from animals to humans as the product of natural evolution.

Described his family’s farm as ‘sort of concrete blocks’

The PM’s senior adviser insisted that his trip to Durham to isolate was not because the property on his family’s farm was a “nice place to be”.

“The point about it was not that it was some nice place to be. If you have been there, you would see that it's sort of concrete blocks,” he said.

“The point about it was not that it was a nice place to be, but that it was the safest place to be in the circumstances – and it meant that I didn't have to expose other people to risk unless I absolutely had to in a critical emergency.”

Didn’t make inquiries about childcare in London before making trip

Mr Cummings used the briefing to insist the journey had been necessary because he and his wife had no reasonable childcare options in London if they both fell ill with coronavirus.

“I suddenly got a call from my wife who was at home looking after our four-year-old child,” he explained in a prepared statement.

“She told me she suddenly felt badly ill, she vomited and felt like she might pass out, and there would be nobody to look after our child. None of our usual childcare options were available.”

However, in subsequent questioning from journalists, Mr Cummings later admitted he did not make inquiries about potential childcare in London.