DOMINIC Cummings faces a police probe over his trip to Durham.
On Monday morning, the Acting Durham Police Crime and Victims’ Commissioner, Steve White asked the local force to “establish the facts concerning any breach of the law.”
He said there was “a plethora of additional information circulating in the public domain which deserves appropriate examination.”
White added: “I have today written to the Chief Constable, asking her to establish the facts concerning any potential breach of the law or regulations in this matter at any juncture.
“It is vital that the Force can show it has the interests of the people of County Durham and Darlington at its heart, so that the model of policing by consent, independent of government but answerable to the law, is maintained.”
Boris Johnson’s chief aide was also reported to police on Sunday by Robin Lees, the retired teacher who believes he spotted the Tory svengali at Barnard Castle on April 12.
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According to the Mirror, Lees saw Cummings, his wife, and their son and a grey Range Rover.
Cummings’ wife Mary Wakefield was on what appeared to be a ‘day out’ for her 45th birthday on April 12 when they were allegedly seen together at the beauty spot around 30 miles from Cummings’ family home in Durham.
Lees told the Mirror : “They looked like they had been for a walk.
“I have given my name. I noticed they have tried to deny some aspects of this so I wanted to give credence to what I was saying.
“I saw his car on the way back from a walk, I thought ‘that looks like Dominic Cummings’ with a woman and a boy and I found that very surprising.
“I looked up his car number plate, because I knew that might be important - it is a Range Rover, and I have seen a photo of him in front of the same vehicle with what seems to be the same number plate, though you cannot make out the last two digits entirely - but it strikes me as too much of a coincidence."
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He added: “He needed childcare - but if that is the case, he should have been in isolation afterwards, we have all followed the rules or at least tried to why hasn’t he?”
The chief adviser is known to have returned to London on April 14, but he was back in Durham by April 19, according to walkers in Houghall Woods near his parents’ home.
On the alleged second visit, at the height of the pandemic, the walkers said they saw Cummings and he remarked: “Aren’t the bluebells lovely?”
It's not the first time the police have been involved in the row. In their initial attempt to defend Cummings, No 10 said on Saturday just after 11am: ‘At no stage was he or his family spoken to by the police about this matter.’
At 8:52pm on Saturday night, Durham Police pointed out that this simply wasn’t true: “Mr Cummings’ father confirmed that his son had travelled with his family from London to the North-East and was self-isolating in part of the property”.
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