London’s Metropolitan Police Service has confirmed it will take no further action over disgraced former government scientific adviser Neil Ferguson breaking the country’s lockdown laws by allowing his married mistress to visit his home, merely saying that his actions were “disappointing”.
The Imperial College epidemiologist’s modelling became the basis for the Johnson administration’s reaction to the Chinese coronavirus and resulted in the current lockdown measures. Professor Ferguson resigned on Tuesday night from his government role after it was revealed that he had allowed left-wing activist Antonia Staats to meet him at least twice at his London home, while she was isolating with her husband and children at a different residence.
Police have been criticised for their heavy-handed approach for enforcing the lockdown, with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announcing this week that it would review every charge, conviction, and sentence brought about under the emergency legislation. While police made a late-night to Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage to tell him that he breached lockdown by travelling to Dover to report on the influx of illegal aliens, police have declined to investigate further into Mr Ferguson’s brazen flouting of the law to carry out his clandestine relationship.
Scotland Yard claimed that Mr Ferguson had “taken responsibility” for his “error of judgement”.
“We remain committed to our role in supporting adherence to Government guidance and have made it clear that our starting position is explaining the need to follow the regulations with anyone who is in breach in order to keep people safe and protect the NHS.
“It is clear in this case that whilst this behaviour is plainly disappointing, Professor Ferguson has accepted that he made an error of judgement and has taken responsibility for that.
“We, therefore, do not intend to take any further action,” a Met statement reported by the Evening Standard said on Wednesday.
The UK’s police have come under criticism in recent weeks for making a mockery of Britons by dancing and rapping in TikTok videos while criticising people for exercising in jeans. London’s Met has also been censured for ignoring lockdown rules by allowing people to break social distancing so long as they are engaged in the two-minutes-of-praise of the NHS every Thursday on Westminster Bridge, meanwhile cracking down on Londoners who wish to go to a park to sit on a bench, sunbathe, or meditate.
Mr Farage has been warning that whilst Britons are forced under lockdown, the country’s borders remain perilously open to both legal and illegal migration, increasing the risk of more incoming cases of Chinese coronavirus.
It was after filming a news report of migrants landing in the south-east of England that Kent Police visited Mr Farage this week to order him to undertake only “essential travel” during the lockdown.
Defiant, the Brexit Party leader later said that he would continue “to cover this scandal” in the interest of public knowledge.
“I don’t know if I will be stopped and fined if I attempt to do my job again. However, I will look at the shipping forecast. Without question, on the next calm day, they will come again, and I will be there to cover this scandal,” he said.
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