Furore rages on over UK PM's defence of top aide's lockdown breach

The furore surrounding top Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings' perceived breach of the coronavirus stay-at-home lockdown rules by travelling 260 miles to his parents' home refused to die down on Monday.

The Opposition branded British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's defence of Cummings as an "insult" to all the sacrifices made by the British public during the pandemic, with a growing number of parliamentarians within Johnson's own Conservative Party calling for his Chief Strategy Adviser to be sacked.

"This was a test of the Prime Minister and he has failed it. It is an insult to sacrifices made by the British people that Boris Johnson has chosen to take no action against Dominic Cummings," said Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition Labour Party.

His Indian-origin shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, added: "The Prime Minister confirms it's one rule for his friends and another rule for the rest of us. All that sacrifice, stress and pain. What an insult."