UK coronavirus live: Tory MP Steve Baker calls for Dominic Cummings to go | World news

The Conservative MP Simon Hoare has joined Steve Baker in calling for Cummings’ resignation.

“I don’t have all the times and dates for you but I understand he will have travelled up there towards the end of March and stayed there, remained there for 14 days, didn’t leave the property and isolation, as per the rules and guidance,” Shapps told Ridge, adding he was sure Cummings obeyed social distancing rules.

He said: “You’ll appreciate I wasn’t with them so I can’t tell you exactly what that journey was like, but what I do know is that Dominic Cummings – I saw a clip yesterday of him asking journalists to be spaced two metres apart, so I know he is a stickler for those rules about what to do to make sure you are following the two-metre rule and the like, so I’m sure that they took all the necessary precautions.”

Ridge asks about police reports confirming that Cummings had been in contact with police, which had been denied by the government.

Shapps said the police was contacted by Cummings’ father, not the other way around.

Ridge says Cummings didn’t stay in the same place, as Shapps just said, and that they first travelled 260 miles. Shapps said the guidance was clear in advising people to take appropriate steps.

“He went back up to Durham further times,” Shapps says, but stayed in London after he returned.

He says several times that parts of the story reported are “not true”, says the “basic” story is husband and wife were hankered down and organised for someone to look after their child.

The most important thing about the government’s guidance is “common sense practical solutions”, particularly when looking after children, Shapps says.

Both parents were concerned about being ill, with Cummings’ wife already ill when they travelled, he believes. “They took perfectly sensible, rational steps,” Shapps says.

Asked when Cummings first had symptoms, Shapps says he doesn’t know, but believes Cummings travelled to Durham at the end of March. He also doesn’t know whether the family stopped during their car journey to Durham.

Ridge says she is disappointed he doesn’t have these details, as the show put these questions to him in advance of the show.

The transport minister, Grant Shapps, is now on Ridge.

“This comes down to somebody trying to do their best by their child,” he says about Cummings’ rule-breaking. “I’d much rather talk to you about transport,” he adds.

“It is very clear that Dominic travelled when everybody else understood Dominic’s slogans to mean ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’,” Baker told Ridge.

“And I think mums and dads who very much care about their children and who have been forgoing the childcare of their extended family will wonder why he has been allowed to do this.

“I really just don’t see, as we approach the Prime Minister (appearing) at the liaison committee on Wednesday, how this is going to go away unless Dominic goes.”

His “tactics” are out of place, Baker adds.

Steve Baker is now on Sky.

Cummings will keep burning through PM’s political capital if he doesn’t resign, Baker says.

Ridge asks what he thinks of Cummings’ childcare defence. Baker says he represents tens of thousands of people who had similar problems, and the lockdown has been really tough on them.

He is diverting from the real issues. “No one is indispensable”, Baker says, and repeats that he believes Cummings should go.

“He creates an awful lot of collateral damage,” Baker says. “It’s important to win, but not at any cost,” he says, and adds that Cummings has techniques he personally is not a fan of.

“He holds in contempt any effort to hold him to account,” Baker says. “The only person he respects in politics is Michael Gove,” he says.

Cummings has always been good at taking over organisations he works for, Baker adds.

Steve Baker has told BBC Breakfast that Boris Johnson “has what it takes” to sack Cummings, and he will have to accept “quite a large number of resignations” if he sacks him, but that he will have to deal with that. Cummings should go today, he says.

Ridge asks about whether Ofsted should be appraising schools on their virtual teaching measures, Wilshaw says yes it should. He mentions children who have no access to laptops, which needs to be followed up so that government can take correct measures.

Should the summer holidays be cancelled, Ridge asks.

Wilshaw responds it is clear that a lot of pupils have lost a lot of time and have “regressed”, and stresses that it’s vital they don’t fall behind other year groups. A recovery programme is necessary, he says, which might have to involve summer school teaching.

It’s important this cohort doesn’t become “a lost generation of youngsters”, he says.

Michael Wilshaw, the ex-Ofsted chief, is now on Ridge, and says about the reopening of schools that parents need clearer evidence that it’s safe to send their children back to the class room.

Social distancing for five-year-olds will be difficult, he says. The government needs to get the confidence of parents and teachers, he says.

In some schools, the right measures might be implemented, while in others they might not be, he adds.

Ridge asked Jones whether she thinks children should be going back to school in 8 days’ time. Jones said the government needs to fill a leadership vacuum and provide clearer answers on the track and trace programme.

Jones mentions Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, the 13-year-old from Brixton who died and was buried without his family present because of lockdown rules.

“If everybody had decided to break the rules, we wouldn’t have brought the infection rate down,” Jones says.

52% of people now think Cumming’s should resign, according to a new poll, Ridge says.

The Labour MP Sarah Jones is on Ridge now.

“Millions of people have put their lives on hold, have made huge sacrifices,” she says about Dominic Cumming’s rule breaches, adds people are rightly feeling that different rules apply for the population and Cummings. The UK had the highest death rates in Europe, she says, and that Cummings has “undermined” the police. She is calling on the government to provide more answers.

Asked if it was a good enough defence that Cummings had travelled 260 miles to seek childcare, she said: “We all have sympathy with everyone in this situation because it has been really stressful and really difficult.

“I know single mums who had Covid when their child had to stay with them and we had to chip in food to make sure they could eat – everyone has made incredible sacrifices.

“If everybody had decided to break the rules then we wouldn’t have brought this infection rate down.

“And when we heard the prime minister, we heard him say ‘stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives’ – he didn’t say ‘or drive 260 miles to Durham if you think that’s the right thing to do’.

“That wasn’t what we heard and that wasn’t what was said and that wasn’t what everybody else did, and that’s why we need answers.”

This from the Sunday Times’ political editor Tim Shipman:

The Conservative MP Steve Baker has just called for Cummings’ resignation.

Good morning, I am going to steer our coronavirus UK live coverage through the next few hours. Today’s front pages are dominated by Dominic Cummings’ breaking of lockdown rules, and transport minister Grant Shapps will be on Ridge on Sunday and Andrew Marr this morning to defend Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser.

Please feel free to flag any interesting updates or tips, you can either email me or message me on Twitter.