Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has said that Remainers want the prime minister’s adviser, Dominic Cummings, fired, in order to have an excuse to extend the transition period.
“It is clear that there are many — not all, but many, in the Remain camp particularly — who would like to see the back of him, who think Cummings going now may well aid them in getting us to extend beyond the end of this year,” Mr Farage said during his LBC show on Monday.
Yesterday, Mr Cummings gave a press conference where he defended taking his family to Durham to be near relatives over concerns that both he and his wife would be incapacitated and unable to look after their four-year-old son.
Mr Cummings has been under extreme scrutiny from the mainstream media, with Brexit backers criticising reporters and photojournalists for the hypocrisy of accusing him of breaching lockdown rules while breaking social distancing themselves as they huddled outside of his family home, pushing cameras into his face.
“I will say the one group of people who’ve come out of today quite badly are the media pack and I think some of the scenes outside his house in London will almost have made people feel a bit sorry for Cummings and the kind of siege under which he’s living,” Mr Farage said.
Mr Cummings also criticised the media for reporting what he said were “false” stories about his travels during the lockdown, which he said contributed to the public outrage and calls for his resignation.
Durham Police also admitted on Monday that earlier statements they had given about them speaking to the aide’s family had been misleading.
The force had said previously that it had spoken to Mr Cummings’ father on April 1st to reiterate government advice on social distancing and essential travel — suggesting to the media and the public that the police suspected him of breaking lockdown rules — but backtracked to say that no such conversation was had.
A police spokesman said: “We can further confirm that our officer gave no specific advice on coronavirus to any members of the family… Durham constabulary deemed that no further action was required in that regard. Our officer did, however, provide the family with advice on security issues.”
Breitbart London reported last week that while he and Prime Minister Boris Johnson were sick with coronavirus, they were working to stop a plan by Remainers to extend the transition period beyond December 31st, 2020, which would have delayed the UK finally leaving the EU’s institutions and halted the implementation of any new trade deals.
A deal to extend the transition period had reportedly been “all but agreed”, but media described that Mr Cummings had returned to work “and the plan, concocted by underlings while he and Boris Johnson were laid out on their sickbeds, was scuppered”.
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