Protesters set up camp outside Dominic Cummings’s home and blast Boris Johnson’s ‘stay at home’ speech on a huge screen
- Boris Johnson’s lockdown message played outside Dominic Cummings’ home
- Campaign group Led By Donkeys also played video from Covid-19 patient
- Interview with family friend of 13-year-old who died alone with virus also played
Boris Johnson’s ‘Stay Home’ message to the nation echoed outside the home of Dominic Cummings this afternoon as the top aide headed to Downing Street amid criticism for breaking lockdown.
The Prime Minister’s top aide is facing calls to resign or be sacked after he drove from London to his parents home in Durham 260 miles away at the end of March.
Witnesses say he was spotted in a town 30 miles away from his parents’ house in April and, after returning to London, a second witness claims to have seen him in Durham later that month.
Earlier today campaign group Led By Donkeys parked a van outside the terraced street where Mr Cummings, his wife and his son all live and played messages emphasising the severity of the Stay Home message Brits were following at the time Mr Cummings reportedly broke the rules.
Mr Johnson’s words ‘You must stay at home, you should not be visiting family members who do not live in your home,’ echoed around the terraced street.
The campaign group is also played footage from Tara Jane Langston, who filmed herself as she struggled to breathe in a London hospital’s intensive care ward.
Weeks before the lockdown message was issued, the mother-of-three warned: ‘If anyone is thinking of taking any chances, just take a look at me, I’m in the intensive care unit and I can’t breathe without this.
‘I have three kids at home and a husband that I can’t see.’
Boris Johnson’s ‘Stay Home’ was played outside the home of Dominic Cummings this afternoon
Police arrived at Mr Cummings’ home this afternoon and were seen knocking on the door
Footage was also played from an interview with Mark Stephenson, a family friend of 13-year-old Ismail Mohammed Abdulwahab, who was unable to see his family as he died from Covid-19 at Kings College Hospital in London.
Mr Johnson then returns to the screen, telling viewers: ‘So many, millions and millions of people across this country have been doing the right thing. Millions going through the hardship of self-isolation.’
Led by Donkeys also put up a separate installation on Westminster Bridge Road on Friday.
Posting a photo of the billboard, which reads ‘Stay alert, Government incompetence costs lives’, the group said: ‘When the PM’s top adviser is criss-crossing the country with coronavirus, it’s definitely time to stay alert.’
Dominic Cummings arrived at Downing Street this afternoon amid calls for him to resign
Police arrived at Mr Cummings’ home this afternoon and were seen knocking on the door – but there was no answer as Mr Cummings remained at Downing Street.
The Prime Minister defended Mr Cummings after news surfaced that he had travelled to Durham, but Downing Street said it would ‘not waste time’ replying to fresh allegations from ‘campaigning newspapers’.
Mr Cummings has denied returning to Durham in April, weeks after his initial time spent self-isolating in the region.
Speaking outside his London home on Sunday, after one journalist asked if he had been back to Durham in April, Mr Cummings said: ‘No, I did not.’
Tara Jane Langston’s message not to take chances with Covid-19 was also played as part of campaign group Led By Donkey’s stunt in London this afternoon
Led By Donkeys raised a billboard on Westminster Bridge Road parodying the government’s Stay at Home message
Officers left Mr Cummings’ doorstep after there was no answer at his door on Sunday afternoon
Mr Cummings arrived in Downing Street this afternoon amid calls for him to resign.
Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister and a senior hardline Brexiteer like Mr Cummings, broke cover to demand the Prime Minister ‘take back control’ of events squirming from his grasp.
Mr Baker told Sky News: ‘If he doesn’t resign, we’ll just keep burning through Boris’s political capital at a rate we can ill afford in the midst of this crisis,’ he said.
‘It is very clear that Dominic travelled when everybody else understood Dominic’s slogans to mean ”stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives”.
‘And I think mums and dads who very much care about their children and who have been forgoing the childcare of their extended family will wonder why he has been allowed to do this.’