Dominic Cummings’ trip to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight may have broken the Highway Code, a former police chief has warned.
Ex-Greater Manchester Police chief constable Sir Peter Fahy said the PM’s adviser would have been turned back if officers had pulled him over.
Mr Cummings has come under fire for his 60-mile round trip to the County Durham beauty spot with his wife Mary Wakfield and four-year-old son on April 12.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove admitted he has also driven with bad eyesight as he leapt to the defence of his close friend this morning.
Dominic Cummings (pictured today) has come under fire for his 60-mile round trip to the County Durham beauty spot with his wife Mary Wakfield and four-year-old son on April 12
Ex-Greater Manchester Police chief constable Sir Peter Fahy (pictured) said the PM’s adviser would have been turned back if officers had pulled him over
Pictured is the County Durham beauty spot Barnard Castle, near where Mr Cummings drove to on April 12
Sir Peter said officers were ‘frustrated’ by the Cummings case, adding it may hinder policy with the rules ‘now very confused’.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Clearly, number one, that’s ill-advised as a means of testing your eyesight as to whether you’re fit to drive, but again it’s hard to see – unless there’s some justification that that was to take daily exercise – how that was justified.’
Asked if it was a criminal offence, Sir Peter replied: ‘It certainly appears to be against the Highway Code. It’s not the way to test your eyesight, and put potentially other people in danger.’
He added ‘it may well be that absolutely he’d have been turned back’ by officers if they stopped him during the drive north from London in March.
Mr Cummings appears to have broken Section 96 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 during his trip.
It states: ‘If a person drives a motor vehicle on a road while his eyesight is such… that he cannot comply with any requirement as to eyesight… for the purposes of tests of competence to drive, he is guilty of an offence.’
The top aide claims he used the journey on his wife’s birthday to check his vision had recovered enough to drive back to London after suffering suspected Covid-19.
He had already travelled 260 miles from the capital to the North East two weeks before to stay at his parents’ farm.
Sent out to bat for his Vote Leave ally this morning, Cabinet Office Minister Mr Gove told LBC radio he had done similar in the past.
Asked by presenter Nick Ferrari if he would have made the 60-mile round trip, he said: ‘I have, on occasions in the past, driven with my wife in order to make sure, what’s the right way of putting it.’
Asked by presenter Nick Ferrari if he would have made the 60-mile round trip Mr Gove said: ‘I have, on occasions in the past, driven with my wife in order to make sure, what’s the right way of putting it …’
He then added ‘people who know me would know that I am not an authority on driving’ and said he took seven attempts to pass his driving test.
In an extraordinary press conference for an adviser, Mr Cummings argued his journey to Durham in March was justified as he sought to protect his family’s health.
But many questions remained unanswered over his subsequent drive to Barnard Castle.
Mr Gove said the journey was ‘completely appropriate’ because he was ‘preparing to return to work’ by checking he was safe to drive the long trip back to London.
Told the reason ‘preparing to return to work’ did not appear under the regulations, Mr Gove replied: ‘No, but the key thing is Dominic is a key worker and being in a position to return to work is a sensible thing.’
‘It’d have been entirely within his right to return to work that day on the basis of the advice he had been given, that’s my understanding, so that drive was completely appropriate,’ he added, to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
NHS Confederation chief executive Niall Dickson said: ‘Because of the way this story has unfolded, there is certainly concern among our members, health leaders, that it could damage staff and public confidence in official guidance.
‘So I think there is concern that this has been a distraction and that it’s not been helpful, and the fear is that it has made people on the front line frustrated and fearful.’
Professor Stephen Reicher, who advises the Government on human behaviour during disease outbreaks, said the PM is risking undermining community spirit by backing Mr Cummings.
In an extraordinary press conference for an adviser, Mr Cummings argued his journey to Durham in March was justified as he sought to protect his family’s health
‘Now, thank God, the public at large didn’t take that attitude, the public at large, as I say, made those major sacrifices, but it threatens to undermine that sense of community if a figure as prominent as Dominic Cummings and if the Prime Minister himself starts undermining that ‘we’ message and starts talking about ‘I’,’ he told Sky News.
The political storm created by Mr Cummings’ press conference on Monday overshadowed Mr Johnson’s announcement that all shops in England will be able to open next month if they can protect shoppers and workers.
The adviser told reporters in No 10’s garden that his wife, journalist Mary Wakefield, fell ill on March 27 – leading him to swiftly leave Downing Street for home.
He said she felt better after a couple of hours and he returned to Downing Street before they later discussed the situation further, including the fact that many in No 10 had developed Covid-19 symptoms.
Mr Cummings said he was worried that if they both fell ill, there was ‘nobody in London we could reasonably ask to look after our child and expose themselves to Covid’.
He declined to apologise and said he did not regret his actions when he outlined how he drove from his home in London to County Durham during the lockdown.
Simon Jupp became the latest Tory MP to suggest that Mr Cummings should consider his position, saying he has felt ‘anger, disappointment and frustration’ during the ‘deeply unhelpful distraction’.