Boris Johnson’s senior aide Dominic Cummings is reportedly the latest high-profile figure to have broken the Government’s lockdown rules.
The Mirror reported that he was spotted at his parents’ home in Durham when he was recovering from Covid-19, after travelling from his London home.
A number of prominent figures have been caught breaching restrictions amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
Here, we look at some of the other high-profile people who have been in the spotlight for flouting local lockdown measures.
– Professor Neil Ferguson
The scientist, whose research helped usher in the lockdown, resigned from his role as a key Government adviser after admitting that he had undermined social distancing rules by reportedly meeting his “lover” at his home.
Professor Neil Ferguson resigned from his role (House of Commons/PA)
Scotland Yard criticised his behaviour as “plainly disappointing” but ruled out issuing a fine because he “has taken responsibility” after resigning as a key Government adviser in the coronavirus response.
– Dr Catherine Calderwood
Scotland’s chief medical officer resigned in April after twice breaking lockdown restrictions in order to visit her second home, which was located more than an hour away from her main residence in Edinburgh.
Despite Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon backing Dr Calderwood to remain in her position, she ultimately decided to relinquish her role so as not to be a “distraction” from the Government’s social-distancing message.
– Robert Jenrick
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary was forced to explain himself after travelling more than an hour to visit his parents despite warning people to remain at home.
Mr Jenrick was also criticised for travelling 150 miles from his London property to his Herefordshire home from where he travelled to his parents in Shropshire.
Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick was criticised for driving to his Herefordshire home from London (Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street/Crown Copyright)
However, he defended his actions, saying he went to deliver food and medicine to his isolating parents.
– Stephen Kinnock
The MP for Aberavon in South Wales was publicly shamed by police after travelling to London to celebrate his father’s birthday.
After Mr Kinnock posted a photo on Twitter of himself practising social distancing with his parents outside their home, South Wales Police replied: “We know celebrating your Dad’s birthday is a lovely thing to do, however this is not essential travel. We all have our part to play in this, we urge you to comply with (lockdown) restrictions, they are in place to keep us all safe. Thank you.”
– Dr David Clark
The New Zealand politician branded himself an “idiot” for driving his family 20km (12.4 miles) to the beach on the first weekend of the country’s national stay-at-home measures.
That incident came a week after he was photographed going for a mountain bike ride 2km (1.2 miles) away from his family home in Dunedin on New Zealand’s south island.
Although the health minister offered his resignation to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, she instead opted to demote him to the bottom of the Government’s Cabinet rankings.
– Marcos Rojo
It is not just politicians who have found themselves in hot water over social distancing breaches as the Manchester United defender was recently filmed appearing to flout Argentina’s coronavirus lockdown rules.
The 30-year-old, on loan at Estudiantes, was seen playing cards and smoking with friends in his homeland in a video on Instagram.
– Kyle Walker
Manchester City’s Kyle Walker was criticised for holding a party (Martin Rickett/PA)
The Manchester City and England full-back was forced to apologise in April after it was widely reported he held a party at his Cheshire home in a blatant violation of the nation’s lockdown measures.
The club has promised the 29-year-old will also be subject to an “internal disciplinary procedure”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel