Nicola Sturgeon: Boris Johnson has put political interest ahead of public interest over Dominic Cummings row

The First Minister has argued that thousands of families across the UK faced the same dilemma as Mr Cummings - but stuck to the rules.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has accused the Prime Minister of putting “political interest ahead of public interest” over Dominic Cummings.

Speaking on Good Morning Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said that Boris Johnson’s decision to defend his top aide threatened to undermine the UK’s public health message.

It comes after it was revealed this weekend that Mr Cummings broke lockdown rules in April by travelling with his wife and young son to Durham from their home in London, after he had tested positive for coronavirus.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has accused the Prime Minister of putting “political interest ahead of public interest” over Dominic Cummings. (Photo by Andrew Milligan - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

“I really do fear that Boris Johnson has decided to put political interest ahead of the public interest,” Ms Sturgeon told interviewers.

“The consequences of that are potentially very serious. Trust in public health messaging is very important - and arguably as we go into the phases where we start to lift the lockdown, that becomes even more important.”

Ms Sturgeon also referenced former Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood, who resigned after being caught travelling from Edinburgh to her second home in Fife - in defiance of her own advice.

“I’ve got a particular insight into this because of the situation with our former CMO, where I didn’t defend her breach of the guidelines, I didn’t try to retrofit the guidance.

“She recognised she’d made a mistake and apologised,”Ms Sturgeon said, “When it became clear to me that the public, understandably, wasn’t prepared to accept that, I judged that integrity of the public health message was more important, and actually, to her credit, so did Catherine Calderwood.”

Asked whether she had any sympathy for Mr Cummings, who claims he and his wife made the decision to take the 260 mile trip to his parents’ house because they feared they were too ill to look after their child, Ms Sturgeon said: “There will be families up and down the length and breadth of the UK who have had the same dilemmas, but they stuck to the rules because the rules were the rules - and I think that is the point here.

“Others followed the rules with all of the difficulty and all of the agonising that has come with that.

“The sacrifices people have made in recent weeks, not seeing ill family members, not being with ill family members, perhaps before they passed away, not being able to attend funeral - these are enormous sacrifices and everybody has had to make them,” she said.

Urging the public to continue to comply with lockdown restrictions, Ms Sturgen said: “Please follow the rules, not just because they are the rules, but because they are the best way to protect yourselves and others.”

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