sacked

[Witton Park]

but there must be many people in the same position as Cummings and his wife who didn’t realise such an option was available to them given the relentless stay at home message.

One parent ill, vomiting, feeling faint, the other parent working with people falling to COVID in his close working environment, a child of 4 with special needs, available family support at the other end of the country at the time.

Not sure that would tick the box of "many" MR.

What I would say is that there has been much debate on here, as well as elsewhere among the general public and even the coppers about what is and isn't appropriate and some of us have advised to look at the guidance, consider it, and make decisions as you see fit.
I think he did that.
Others may have come to different opinions in similar circumstances because their situation was different and/or they interpreted the guidance in a different way.
That doesn't make anyone wrong.

If I have one reservation about his statement, it is the explanation of his drive out to Barnard Castle.
If he'd been cleared to come back to work in London and wanted to check he was OK to drive generally, fine. I'd have had issues in the past with my back and have taken a short test journey to make sure I felt confident to take a longer drive.
But back is not eyesight. However, he's faced far more scrutiny than two MPs accused of lockdown breaking and under that scrutiny, I'll cut him some slack - we've seen many have "mis-spoken" of late in the glare of the media.