Calls grow for UK leader's aide to quit over lockdown trip

LONDON (AP) — Several lawmakers from Britain’s governing Conservative Party on Sunday joined opposition calls for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top aide to be fired for allegedly violating the national coronavirus lockdown rules that he helped to create.

Adviser Dominic Cummings has defended his decision to drive 250 miles (400 kilometers) from London to his parents' home in Durham, in northeast England, with his wife and son as he was coming down with COVID-19 at the end of March.

Britain's lockdown, which began March 23, stipulated that people should remain at their primary residence, leaving only for essential local errands and exercise. Anyone with coronavirus symptoms was told to completely isolate themselves.

“Dominic Cummings has a track record of believing that the rules don’t apply to him and treating the scrutiny that should come to anyone in a position of authority with contempt," tweeted Conservative lawmaker Damian Collins. "The government would be better without him.”

Another Tory legislator, Steve Baker, said Cummings must resign for not “abiding by the spirit, at least, of the slogans which he has enforced on the rest of the country.”

“It is very clear that Dominic traveled when everybody else understood Dominic’s slogans to mean ‘stay at home, protect the (health service) and save lives,‘” Baker told Sky News.

The government has defended Cummings, saying he traveled to be near extended family because his wife was showing COVID-19 symptoms, he correctly thought he was also infected and he wanted to ensure that his 4-year-old son was looked after.

The coronavirus cut a swath through the top ranks of Britain’s government in March and April, infecting people including Cummings, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Johnson...