Johnson faces revolt by scores of backbenchers over Cummings

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Boris Johnson is facing a revolt from scores of his own backbenchers as they line up to condemn the British Prime Minister and his chief adviser Dominic Cummings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A storm of protest continues to rage not only over revelations that Mr Cummings broke the British Government’s own lockdown guidelines&comma; but also over Mr Johnson’s defence of him on Sunday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At least 15 Conservative backbenchers have called for Mr Cummings to go&comma; while several others have spoken out against his actions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Newly elected MPs including Elliot Colburn&comma; Paul Holmes and Jonathan Gullis have said they have &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>conveyed the strength of local feeling to relevant colleagues<&sol;i>” after being contacted by constituents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"550" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">Constituents who have contacted me regarding Dominic Cummings can rest assured I’ve conveyed the strength of local feeling to relevant colleagues very robustly in Government&period; I’ll respond to all emails when I’m back in the office after the bank holiday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; Paul Holmes MP &lpar;&commat;pauljholmes&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;pauljholmes&sol;status&sol;1264853307799097346&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">May 25&comma; 2020<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Conservative former minister Paul Maynard said he shared people’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>dismay<&sol;i>” at the PM’s response&comma; and was one of many MPs who insisted Mr Cummings should quit or be sacked&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>It is a classic case of &OpenCurlyQuote;do as I say&comma; not as I do’ – and it is not as if he was unfamiliar with guidance he himself helped draw up&comma;<&sol;i>” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>It seems to me to be utterly indefensible and his position wholly untenable<&sol;i>&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Veteran Conservative Sir Roger Gale told the PA news agency&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>I’m very disappointed&comma; I think it was an opportunity to put this to bed and I fear that now the story is simply going to run and run&period;”<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Senior Tory MP Simon Hoare&comma; who had already called for Mr Cummings to go&comma; later criticised Mr Johnson’s press conference&comma; telling the Daily Mail&colon; <i>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The PM’s performance posed more questions than it answered&period;<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Any residual hope that this might die away in the next 24 hours is lost&period;”<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Somerton and Frome MP David Warburton said Mr Cummings was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>damaging the Government and the country that he’s supposed to be serving<&sol;i>”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Monday morning&comma; he said his own father had died alone as a result of the coronavirus lockdown&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"550" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">As much as I despise any baying pitchfork-led trials by social media&comma; I&&num;39&semi;m unconvinced by the PM&&num;39&semi;s defence of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;hashtag&sol;Cummings&quest;src&equals;hash&amp&semi;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&num;Cummings<&sol;a>&period;<br &sol;>We&&num;39&semi;ve all been tasked with tempering our parental&comma; and other&comma; instincts by strictly adhering to Govt guidance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; David Warburton MP &lpar;&commat;DJWarburton&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;DJWarburton&sol;status&sol;1264606651908268032&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">May 24&comma; 2020<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>People have made sacrifices&comma; this is a difficult time&comma; this is a time of national crisis&comma;<&sol;i>” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>In those sacrifices there really hasn’t been the choice to use instinct&period; Instinct hasn’t really been part of it&period; We’ve been tasked with following regulations laid down by the Government&period;<&sol;i>”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tory grandee Lord Heseltine said it was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>very difficult to believe there isn’t a substance<&sol;i>” in the allegations about Mr Cummings’ movements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>I think these unanswered questions are now on the agenda<&sol;i>&comma;” he told the BBC&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>and I don’t think that this anxiety about the Government’s position will end until we know the whole story&period;<&sol;i>”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another Tory MP&comma; Jason McCartney&comma; said while it was important for people to show compassion during the crisis&comma; Mr Cummings had to go because the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>perceived hypocrisy of the rule makers potentially threatens the success of any future measures<&sol;i>” under any second wave of the coronavirus&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>We must have confidence that we are doing the right things for the right reasons and that we are all truly in it together&period; For that reason I believe Mr Cummings’ position is now untenable&comma;<&sol;i>” Mr McCartney said in a Facebook post&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Drawing attention to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>the moral hazard of Cummingsgate<&sol;i>”&comma; Tory MP George Freeman retweeted an article from The Spectator which said Mr Johnson’s judgment was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>now the issue<&sol;i>”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>East Worthing &amp&semi; Shoreham MP Tim Loughton said he had &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>come to the conclusion that the position of Dominic Cummings is untenable as the chief adviser to the Government and he must resign or be removed<&sol;i>”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Former minister Steve Baker said if Mr Cummings does not resign &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>we’ll just keep burning through Boris’s political capital at a rate we can ill afford in the midst of this crisis<&sol;i>”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Other critics include Peter Aldous&comma; Peter Bone&comma; Damian Collins&comma; Caroline Nokes&comma; Julian Sturdy&comma; Robert Syms&comma; Craig Whittaker&comma; James Gray and Martin Vickers&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Opposition parties have also been fiercely critical&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Johnson had failed a test of leadership&comma; adding that his decision to take no action against Mr Cummings was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>an insult to sacrifices made by the British people<&sol;i>”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Acting Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey tweeted &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>Cummings must go<&sol;i>”&comma; saying the public would be &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>confused and angry<&sol;i>” that he is still in his position&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon accused Mr Johnson of jeopardising public health messaging by backing Mr Cummings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; the PM won support from some in his party&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>MP Lee Anderson said he was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>disgusted<&sol;i>” by the treatment of Mr Cummings by the media and some online commentators&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a post on his Facebook page&comma; the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire wrote&colon; <i>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I have received messages and emails about Dominic Cummings&period; I have lots of questions to be answered before I pass judgement or comment&period;<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I will not accept trial by media when a persons whole future is at stake&period; The reaction of the press outside his home and some online comments have quite frankly disgusted me&period; I have been on the receiving end from the media in the past and it has an awful impact on members of your family&period;”<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed33233ce87">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; 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