Dominic Cummings must go if the prime minister is to retain the authority he needs

Editorial: The problem is that the guidelines the government drew up say, if any member of your household has symptoms of Covid-19, ‘do not leave your home for any reason’

Dominic Cummings leaves his north London home yesterday (EPA)

Dominic Cummings says he acted reasonably and legally in leaving his London home to travel the length of England with his wife, who had coronavirus symptoms, and his son. Now it emerges that he went to Durham again after returning to work in London.

If Mr Cummings and his wife were so confident that their actions were reasonable and would be seen as such, it is interesting that his wife, Mary Wakefield, does not mention this significant episode in her thousand-word account of their illness. It is just as telling that Mr Cummings and the prime minister’s office have stonewalled questions about his trip to Durham for several weeks.

The problem for Mr Cummings and for his boss, Boris Johnson, is that the policy they devised and the guidelines they drew up say, if any member of your household has symptoms of Covid-19, “do not leave your home for any reason”.