UK govt defends top adviser over lockdown 'breach'

The British government on Saturday rejected calls to sack top adviser Dominic Cummings over allegations he broke coronavirus lockdown rules by travelling across the country while displaying symptoms of the disease. Cummings, who announced he was suffering from coronavirus symptoms on March 30, was seen with his young son close to his parents' home in Durham, northeastern England, more than 250 miles (400 kilometres) away from his London home on March 31. Under lockdown rules brought in on March 23, anyone with symptoms must self-isolate in their own homes. And people aged over 70 - as Cummings' parents are - are not allowed to receive visitors.
Britain's opposition Labour party said his actions suggested Cummings viewed himself as above the law and the smaller Liberal Democrats said it could be a resignation issue.
"The public have made extraordinary sacrifices during this pandemic and the lockdown. It cannot be one rule for those who set them and another for the British people," Labour leader Keir Starmer said. An unnamed minister told the Daily Telegraph: "He's going to have to go. It's just arrogance."