Chris Whitty erupts as he’s dragged into Cummings row ‘Don’t call me into politics!’

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance hit out at a journalist for claiming Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told them not to answer questions about Dominic Cummings. They explained they have no desire to be called into the political row. Sky News’ Sam Coates asked: “First a question to Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty, are you entirely comfortable with the Prime Minister telling you that you can’t answer questions about Dominic Cummings? If you can’t give a verbal answer, a nod or the shake of the head will suffice and is there anything else the Prime Minister has told you not to answer on?”

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Speaking at Downing Street, Mr Whitty said: “I can assure you the desire to not get pulled into politics is far stronger to Patrick and me than it is to the Prime Minister.”

Chief Scientific Adviser, Mr Vallance added: “I’m a civil servant andand I’m politically neutral, I don’t want to get involved in politics at all.”

Their reason for speaking out came after BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg asked the civil servants if Mr Cummings was setting a good example for the people of Britain after travelling during the coronavirus lockdown.

Mr Johnson said it was a political matter.

READ MORE: ‘I couldn’t ask!’ Laura Kuenssberg erupts as daily briefing erupts

Chris Whitty broke his silence on Dominic Cummings during the briefing (Image: BBC•NUMBER10)

Patrick Vallance said he doesn’t want to get involved in politics (Image: Downing Street)

ITV host Piers Morgan immediately took to Twitter to voice his concern on their refusal to answer.

He wrote: “Wow. Now Vallance and Whitty refuse to say if they agree with what Cummings did. The only obvious implication is they DON’T agree with it.”

It was their first appearance at the daily Downing Street briefings since before the story broke at the weekend, although they were seen leaving Downing Street shortly before the press conference on Monday.

Mr Johnson said on Thursday evening: “I’ve said quite a lot on this matter already and what I also note is that what Durham police said was that they were going to take no action and that the matter was closed.

Mr Johnson jumped in when questions were aimed at the scientific advisers (Image: Downing Street)

“And I intend to draw a line under the matter, as I said yesterday to the Parliamentary Liaison Committee.”

Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, who raised the issue, he added: “I know that you’ve asked Chris and Patrick but I’m going to interpose myself if I may and protect them from what I think would be an unfair and unnecessary attempt to ask any political questions.

“It’s very, very important that our medical officers and scientific advisers do not get dragged into what I think most people would recognise is fundamentally a political argument.”

Mr Johnson jumped in again when questions were aimed at Sir Patrick and Prof Whitty about Mr Cummings, telling the Downing Street briefing: “It’s very important our advisers are protected from being dragged into political controversy.”

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Dominic Cummings timeline (Image: EXPRESS)

The Prime Minister announced at the briefing that small social gatherings will be permitted outside in England from Monday, as long as people from separate households remain at a distance of two metres.

But there was no easing the measures for the more than one million people deemed “extremely clinically vulnerable” to Covid-19 because of their health conditions.

Chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty offered the prospect at the Downing Street briefing on Thursday that infection levels may be low enough for them to leave home shortly.

“And we will get to a stage, we hope relatively soon, where the absolute risk of people has gone down to a low enough level it will be possible in stages for people to leave shielding,” he said.