Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Boris Johnson faces Tory fury after backing Dominic Cummings

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Historians are asking people to keep all their electronic communications to help document these momentous times. So your next Zoom meeting could end up in a book about the lockdown. Retired chemistry teacher Robin Lees may play a key role in the political history of the period. His computer search history proved he’d looked up Dominic Cummings’ number plate after spotting the PM’s adviser in Durham last month. Boris Johnson is standing by his man for now – but he faces widespread outrage and mounting pressure from Tory backbenchers for the itinerant No 10 strategist to go. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus crisis.

Inside the bubble

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson assembles his cabinet this morning and could face questions from ministers about the decision to back his top adviser, knowing many Tory backbenchers are furious about it. With plenty of questions left unanswered about Dominic Cummings trip to Durham, the unlucky minister who gets pushed forward for today’s 5pm press conference will know the subject sure to dominate reporters’ queries.

Daily briefing

CUMMINGS, GOINGS, STAYING PUT? Boris Johnson used Sunday’s Downing Street briefing to tell us Dominic Cummings is going nowhere. Well, nowhere else. For now. The PM said his advisor had “followed the instincts of every father” and had acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity” by driving 260 miles from London to Durham with his wife, who had coronavirus symptoms. Questions remain over the adviser’s alleged trip to Barnard Castle on 12 April. And another witness has claimed they spotted Cummings near Durham a week later, 19 April, after the adviser was seen in London. The retired chemistry teacher Robin Lees has now made a complaint to the police about the alleged castle visit. And Amanda Hopgood, leader of the Lib Dems on Durham County Council, said “a number of local residents” have reported seeing Cummings “on several occasions in April and May”. She has also referred the matter to the police.

EVEN THE MAIL: Opposition leaders, Tory backbenchers, Church of England bishops, members of the Sage subcommittee and even much of the right-wing press have expressed their outrage at Cummings – and the PM for keeping him on. The Daily Mail has the striking front-page headline: “What planet are they on?” Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “If I were prime minister, I would have sacked Cummings.” No 10 will be worried about the furious reaction by Tory MPs, after influential Brexiteer Steve Baker said Cummings “clearly broke” the guidance. One “blue wall” Tory told The Independent: “We are absolutely f***ing livid.” Grant Shapps, among several cabinet members attempting a defence over the weekend, bumbled into a blatant untruth: “We’ve never told people where they have to specifically locate themselves.” Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office is promising an investigation into a rogue tweet by the UK Civil Service: “Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters?”

UNSETTLING BEHAVIOUR: The government is facing another row after it emerged that some EU nationals living in the UK are at risk of being denied full citizenship, despite minister previously insisting “we want you to stay”. The Home Office is now asking some of them to produce further evidence they’ve been living in the UK legally – even after securing so-called “settled status”. The 3 million campaign group described the new hurdles as potentially “devastating”. Elsewhere, the government has indicated it could take stakes in big companies hit by the coronavirus slump as part of a bailout plan named “Project Birch”, the Financial Times has reported. The PM did actually have a bit of news for us on Sunday, saying England was ready to move to phase two of lockdown easing as planned – with schools still expected to welcome back year one and year six pupils on 1 June.

CONSPIRACY THEORIST-IN-CHIEF: The US has barred travel from Brazil as the south American struggles to get its coronavirus outbreak under control. The White House said all foreign travellers who had been in Brazil in the previous 14 days would be denied entry. Donald Trump hasn’t commented on the ban – but he has had plenty to say about Joe Scarborough. He spent the weekend floating more completely unfounded conspiracy theories that the MSNBC host once committed murder on Twitter. As the number of US coronavirus deaths neared 100,000, the president rested up from all his hard work tweeting with a round of golf.

DIFFERENT KIND OF VIRUS: China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has hit out at the Trump administration – claiming the US has been infected by a “political virus” that resulted in senior figures “jumping at every opportunity to slander” Beijing. He urged Washington to “stop wasting time and stop wasting precious lives” in its response to the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s director Wang Yanyi said US claims the virus originated at the facility are a “pure fabrication”. China reported only 11 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus cases on Sunday – all imported cases, according to the health authorities.

LIFTING AND DRIFTING: South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced an easing of lockdown measures from June 1 – despite admitting the outbreak was “going to get much worse before it gets better”. An overnight curfew will be lifted, schools will restart and the majority of businesses will be allowed to open from next week. Ramaphosa said one-third of South Africa’s 22,000 cases had been recorded in the past week. “We should expect that these numbers will rise even further and even faster,” he conceded. The country’s Mponeng gold mine has been shut down after 164 workers tested positive.

On the record

“It is an insult to sacrifices made by the British people that Boris Johnson has chosen to take no action against Dominic Cummings.”

Keir Starmer reacts to the PM’s big decision.

From the Twitterati

“An unauthorised tweet was posted on a government channel this evening. The post has been removed and we are investigating the matter.”

Cabinet Office promises to probe Civil Service tweet...

“Oh, so now you care about the f***ing rules.”

…and satirist James Felton is amazed.

Essential reading

Tom Peck, The Independent: Dominic Cummings is too clever to break the rules – they bend to accommodate him

Alastair Campbell, The Independent: When the world compares Johnson to Trump, it’s hard not to be ashamed

Stephen Glover, The Daily Mail: The British people have the right to expect better from their prime minister

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times: Covid dreams, Trump nightmares

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