England’s chief nurse, Ruth May was ‘dropped’ from a Downing Street COVID-19 briefing as she refused to back Dominic Cummings. This followed Dominic Cummings rule-breaching trip to Durham in April.
The Independent report that the incident which led to May’s happened in the lead up to the 1st June’s ‘Daily briefing’.
May, and Matt Hancock, were answering practice questions in preparation for the Briefing that evening. During the questions, May was asked ‘directly’ by a special adviser how would she answer ‘the Dominic Cummings question’.
The chief nurse told the advisors that she intended on ‘answering in the same way as Johnathan Van-Tam ‘. Professor Van-Tam has not appeared at any Government briefings since telling journalists the lockdown rules “apply to all”.
This news highlights Dominic Cummings tight grip over Government, and the stage-management of Government to protect Cummings. We live in a time when the Government needs to be focused on protecting the health of their citizens. Ministers, journalists and the public are right to question why Cummings is so important to the Prime Minister.