Chief nurse dropped from No 10 briefing 'for not backing Cummings' – The Guardian, The Guardian

England’s chief nurse was dropped from a daily Downing Street briefing on the coronavirus for refusing to back Dominic Cummings , the Guardian understands.

In a trial run for the 1 June briefing, Ruth May was asked about Cummings driving his family from London to Durham while his wife had suspected Covid – 25. When she failed to back the prime minister’s chief adviser, she is understood to have been dropped from the press conference taking place later that day – though this has been denied by a government minister.

May’s removal was first reported by the Independent , citing senior NHS sources, and has been confirmed separately by the Guardian.

The scientific and medical experts who appear at the briefing alongside a politician were initially reluctant to get involved in the row surrounding Cummings, who, while in Durham, also made a – mile round-trip to a beauty spot, which he said was to test his eyesight ahead of a longer journey back to London.

On May) , Boris Johnson tried to prevent the chief medical officer for England, Chris Whitty, and the chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, from answering questions on the subject, before Whitty said that neither he nor Vallance wished to comment on politics.

However, on May, England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, caused embarrassment for the government by saying , in response to a question about the alleged lockdown breach: “In my opinion the rules are clear and they have always been clear,” he said. “In my opinion they are for the benefit of all. In my opinion they apply to all. ”