In a statement issued this morning, Birmingham Northfield MP Gary Sambrook (Con) says that he believes it is now time to ‘draw a line’ under the Dominic Cummings affair.
Advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Cummings has been under intense media and opposition scrutiny regarding a trip to Durham in March to self-isolate near extended family members during the COVID-19 lockdown. He has faced calls for his resignation from opposition politicians, as well as some Conservative back benchers. (Read more: BBC)
Mr Sambrook said that he felt Mr Cummings’ explanation of his actions at a press conference from the Downing Street rose garden on Monday (25 May) was “comprehensive and sincere”.
He said he believed he would have advised any constituent in a similar situation: “as per the guidance that they must do what they believe is necessary in exceptional circumstances.”
Read Mr Sambrook’s statement in full:
Thank you to everyone who has contacted me about Dominic Cummings. Also thank you for all you have done to observe the lockdown and to help us defeat the spread of the Covid-19 virus. I appreciate how hard it has been for everyone at this difficult time.
I have taken time to look at this important issue, and take in all of the detail over the last few days. I listened to Dominic Cummings statement on Monday and felt that this was comprehensive and sincere.
I believe if a constituent in a similar position worried about who would take care of their child sought advice from my office, I would have advised as per the guidance that they must do what they believe is necessary in exceptional circumstances.
I say this as someone who has never met with Dominic Cummings, or have ever spoken with him.
I think that it is now time to draw a line under this issue.
Everyone has made sacrifices over these last few months that they could never have imagined, including not being able to see sick family and friends and even attend funerals.
Some of the language in this debate however has been unnecessary and unpleasant. I feel deeply uncomfortable with the hounding that Dominic’s family have received and were receiving prior to the family leaving for Durham, accounting for part of the reason to leave.
Some of you may think that I am just ‘towing the line’ but I want to assure you this is my genuine view. Many people have lost trust in politics and ask that politicians speak more candidly. As your MP I see it as my job to be honest and candid with you.
My focus throughout this pandemic has been to use my role as an MP to offer support, guidance and help to people across Northfield. That is where my focus will remain.
My team and I will respond to the emails received over the weekend this week, but please do bear with us as we are still prioritising the most urgent cases which come in and require immediate attention.
This wasn’t such a huge issue but to constantly Lie in statements and to suggest a trip on his wife’s birthday was to check eye sight, it annoys me that we are been taken for fools. shame on Gary, no back bone
‘Towing the line’. Clown. It’s not a tug of war. Try ‘toeing’. And that is exactly what you are doing. So much wrong with his explanations (or more realistically- bullshit). So he drove 30 miles to test his eyesight was ok ? With his wife and child in the car. And you expect us to swallow that ? Get your nose out of the Tory trough and listen to what your constituents are saying.
Ridiculous. If your advice to your constituents would have been to make a 60 mile round trip to a beauty spot to check if your eyes work, then you’re either a liar or not fit to be in a position of responsibility.
Exceptional circumstances? what total rubbish,whats exceptional about it?
No amount of Tory perception management or attempted gas-lighting of their constituents will convince me that if your partner wakes up in the morning feeling unwell with Covid symptoms, it’s now OK to go into work and not to self isolate for 14 days as per original government legislation.
FACT Cummings went to work despite his wife having Covid symptoms
No amount of Tory perception management and attempted gas-lighting of their constituents will convince me that it’s OK for his wife who had covid symptoms to visit the hospital with their son. Especially given the claim they travelled to Durham specifically so someone could care for their child if needed.
No amount of Tory perception management or attempted gas-lighting of their constituents will convince me that the way to test your eyes is to drive,on an hours trip to Barnard castle.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the trip took place on his wife’s birthday,but that’s irrelevant anyway as given he still had symptoms, they should have both still been in quarantine.
And no amount of Tory perception management or attempted gas-lighting of their constituents will convince me it’s OK for someone who thinks they have covid 19 to drive the length of the country and put the people of Durham at risk,especially the Dr’s and nurses who could have ended up having to treat him and his wife had they worsened or had an accident on the way there.
The problem is Mr Sambrook you don’t want to just draw a line under it,you want to ignore and erase the inconvenient truths and makes you just as dangerous to public health if your advising people with the virus that Cummings did nothing wrong.
three very simple questions for our MP or anyone defending all of cummings’s action’s.
1/
Is it now OK to go to work if you or anyone in your household is showing symptoms coronavirus?
2/
If you or anyone in your household is showing symptoms of the coronavirus, is it now OK not to self isolate for the 14+ days(after symptoms subside?
3/
given that the legislation around Exceptional circumstances was bought in to protect vulnerable children and domestic abuse victims why are you advising your constituents who suspect they or their family has covid 19 virus that its OK to break strict quarantine legislation for child care?
How can you back such a bare faced liar who went on a jolly while the rest of us followed the rules. One rule for you one rule for us. You have lost my vote.
Anyone else disappointed that 4 months into a pandemic the first time our MP has anything to say, is to defend a government special adviser and repeat the lie and attempt to gas-light his constituents by claiming he feels…….
” deeply uncomfortable with the hounding that Dominic’s family have received and were receiving prior to the family leaving for Durham, accounting for part of the reason to leave.
I suggest he feels uncomfortable because he knows it’s a blatant lie and knows perfectly well that that animosity from his neighbours has only happened after the news broke, that he had broken strict quarantine rules not once or twice,but 5 times.
Mr Sambrook claims Mr Cummings had exceptional circumstances and did nothing wrong by driving the length of the country to get childcare despite both having virus symptoms. Even if i agreed with him on that,(and i don’t) what about the other 4 breaches of the legislation?
1/what exceptional circumstances were there for going into work the morning his wife was showing virus symptoms?
2/what exceptional circumstances were there for his wife breaking quarantine rules by visiting Durham hospital despite suspecting she had the virus?
3/what exceptional circumstances were there for them both breaking strict quarantine rules again to go on a family excursion to Barnard Castle whilst still showing symptoms?
4/what exceptional circumstances were there for breaking quarantine rules and driving back to London whilst still showing symptoms?
why,if not to toe the party lie (sic),has this prompted him, to address the wider community but nothing else in 4 months of a deadly pandemic has?
Unbelievable, well done Northfield. We lost a hardworking MP who actually lived here and replaced him with this nasty little Tory clown with no backbone, doing what he is told by his masters.
Gary doesn’t ever reply, whilst Richard normally always did. To Gary we are poor scum and merely a stepping stone. I doubt Gary knew where Northfield was before he ran.
I am very disappointed that Gary has taken this line, though I agree with some of his points. Some Conservative MPs are telling the truth about this, albeit a minority. Northfield deserves better and people will see through this; we need an MP who will speak for all of us. If Gary thinks this will do him good electorally then he is mistaken.
Not a good look to say you’re not ‘towing’ the line when you are most definitely ‘toeing’ the party line.
If Dominic Cummings had apologised several weeks ago most people would’ve drawn a line under it by now. Instead after hoping the story would go away on its own he’s provided a statement stretching the truth to its limits and dragged the Prime Minister in to back him up. Unbelievable.
Hopeless response and a slap in the face for those who followed the guidelines.
Mr SamBrook I’m looking at doing my bit for the econemy by purchasing a car, could you please ask Dominic Cummings what make and model of car he drives,.
I’d like to get his miles per gallon, because to drive from London to Durham, with a trip to the hospital from his parents estate and back, to pick up his wife and son,(who despite having the virus, got an ambulance to the hospital with her son anyway). Then a day trip to Barnard castle from his parents estate and back(only to check his eyesight of course, nothing to do with his wife’s birthday), then finally their drive back to London. all on a single tank of diesel, is the stuff of dreams.
I know it was lucky, that the day before his wife had symptoms, he’d managed to have fortuitously filled it up with a full tank of diesel, or they might not have made this fantastical family excursion,(no sorry, my mistake) they wouldn’t have been able to escape the fictisious baying crowds with pitchforks that were to arrive weeks later at the end of May.
It is, if your word is to be believed,an absolutely amazing story and feat of mechanical engineering, that any normal, right thinking person who had a even a smidgeon of honesty and integrity, would say was an unrealistic and unbelievable story,not you though.
Could you also ask Mr Cummings,what your opinion is, on there being 60,000 excess deaths so far this year?
Maybe once the unelected
bureaucrat has told you what your “honest and candid” opinion is, you could inform us, your constituents.
How very convenient for Mr Sambrook that his ‘genuine view’ just happens to agree with Mr Cummings’s explanation, unlike the vast majority of people in the country, of all political persuasions and none. A happy coincidence no doubt, but probably something that will come back to haunt him, so perhaps not a good move politically for him in such a marginal seat!
For me the great tragedy of this whole business is well expressed by Stephen Reicher, who is on the government’s own advisory committee on behavioural science: ‘In a few short minutes Boris Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control Covid-19’. Says it all really.
Gary Sambrook’s comments on Dominic Cummings constitute a serious error of judgment on his part: the lockdown policy only works if the political elite are seen to be complying. Our MP is running out of political capital (like Boris Johnson nationally) and needs to get Government Ministers to challenge (and rectify) the failures of Governance at Birmingham City Council – this might start to redress the balance.
Tory’s have no excuse Cummings broke lock down rule’s and should be fined.