The majority of Norfolk’s MPs have gone quiet over Dominic Cummings’ lockdown travel, with just two out of nine responding to our requests for comment.
George Freeman, Conservative MP for Mid-Norfolk, and Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, are so far the only two we have spoken with directly.
Cabinet member and MP for South-West Norfolk, Liz Truss, has not acknowledged our attempts to make contact.
The same is true of Broadland MP Jerome Mayhew, North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker, North West MP James Wild, South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon and Norwich North MP Chloe Smith.
Meanwhile the aide of Brandon Lewis, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Great Yarmouth MP, pointed us to a tweet which would serve as comment. It read: “Father looks after child, within guidelines...&...?”
The news comes as Peter Aldous, MP for Waveney, admitted receiving hundreds of emails following prime minister Boris Johnson’s speech yesterday evening - leading to a change of heart “guided by his constituents”.
He said: “Originally I was sympathetic to Mr Cummings.
“But following new information which came to light, I now agree with my constituents that Mr Cummings should go.”
Mr Cummings will give a public statement at 4pm today addressing the issue.
Mr Freeman said: “If a husband and wife both have Covid-19, is taking their child to the grandparents a sacking offence? No.“But the mixed messaging, communications muddle and now this #curfewgate is very damaging to the prime minister, cabinet, Her Majesty’s Government authority and public trust.“Time for an apology and return to work to fix this mess.“It’d be a big mistake for the prime minister and Dominic Cummings to dismiss the anger as ‘Remoaniac Twitterati bleating’. It isn’t.
“People don’t want blame games and media lynch mobs - they want a strong, clear government they can trust to deliver.”
Mr Lewis said: “I didn’t see my family for nearly six weeks for a variety of reasons. I can now as things have relaxed but that was very difficult.
“I’m struggling to see why someone at the heart of government in [a country] with one of the worst death rates in the world has chosen to flout the lockdown.
“The writing is on the wall for him.”
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