Closing summary We’re closing this blog down now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the latest news: More than 40 Tory MPs have now called for Dominic Cummings to go. With Downing Street continuing to defend him, the senior government minister Penny Mordaunt also said there were “inconsistencies” in Cummings’ account of his actions and apologised to her constituents for how recent days were distracting from key public health messages. The former de facto deputy prime minister Damian Green criticised Cummings, but stopped short of calling for him to go. The former home secretary, Amber Rudd, added her voice to those calling for Cummings’ departure. Rudd, who stood down as an MP in December, told ITV’s Peston programme that Cummings’ continued presence in No 10 was making the government’s job more difficult at a time of national crisis. Boris Johnson said an independent inquiry into Dominic Cummings’ actions wouldn’t be a good use of official time. The PM was grilled on the Cummings affair and his government’s response to the pandemic by the powerful liaison committee. Under forensic questioning and several times facing the charges of putting political concerns before the nation’s health and of underestimating the public’s anger, the prime minister said it was time to “move on” from the “very frustrating” episode. He also didn’t give a clear answer on whether he was saying that if people don’t have access to childcare they could do what Cummings did. The NHS test and trace programme goes live at 9am on Thursday. If you get a call from a contact tracer because you’ve been in contact with an infected person, you must isolate for 14 days, even if you don’t have symptoms. The government has said these instructions must be followed. Though they will be voluntary at first, they will be made mandatory if necessary. “It’s your civic duty to follow test and trace instructions,” Matt Hancock said. Officers are reporting people breaking lockdown rules and using Dominic Cummings as an excuse, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner said. David Jamieson told the BBC in the last few days the public has pushed back and the police’s ability to enforce the rules has been undermined. He said people are telling officers that “if it is OK for Cummings, it is OK for us”. Most people now believe there is “one rule for them, and one rule for us” after Cummings remained in post despite breaching the lockdown, a government adviser said. Prof Stephen Reicher, who advises the government on human behaviour during disease outbreaks. He has told Channel 4 News: “And all the research on compliance with authority shows that it depends critically on thinking that authority is part of us, is with us, is for us. And so, once you create that sense of ‘us and them’, you undermine trust and you undermine compliance.” If you’d like to read yet more, head over to our global pandemic live blog, which is still running: In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. McGuinness said Cummings’ actions had undermined the goodwill needed to maintain the lockdown. She told Newsnight: I think people do feel that Dominic Cummings’ action undermines everything that they’ve all put themselves through, the things that they’ve missed, the people that they’ve missed and all of that. But I also think that we’re at the back end of a lot of very complex and confused messaging from government who haven’t been clear about what the rules are and why the rules are there. You know, why can you meet one person and not two people? Social distancing is optional and so on. And so the police have been there to enforce it, to keep us safe and they’ve done that but that goodwill with people is so very important and Dominic Cummings completely undermined that and then the prime minister has refused to hold him to account. Kim McGuinness, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria, has told BBC’s Newsnight she was concerned the public’s attitude towards the lockdown has changed. We’re already anecdotally hearing from MPs, from the media, from police officers that people are using Dominic Cummings as an excuse when they’re approached about why they’re breaking lockdown rules. So, whilst people have been great in the last eight weeks, they’ve been, by and large, listening to the lockdown because we’re in it together fighting this deadly virus, that confidence is starting to erode and if test, track and trace is going to work we need to get that back on track. When asked how people who will need to self-isolate after being informed by a contact tracer will likely respond, McGuinness replied: I think it’s very difficult, you’re asking people to go right back to the beginning of where we were eight weeks ago. And that is a big ask at the best of times and particularly when they’ve already been asked to do that and so I think that we need to make sure that people are aware of what is expected of them, that they have confidence that other people are doing it as well. So this system needs to be slick, it needs to be well delivered and it needs to be ready to go and really we should have had it weeks ago. Here’s a little more from Rudd’s appearance on this evening’s edition of Peston: Former home secretary calls on Cummings to resign The former Tory home secretary Amber Rudd has become the latest prominent figure to say Dominic Cummings should depart No 10 over his lockdown breach. Rudd, who also served as work and pensions secretary and chose not to stand for reelection as an MP in December after resigning the Conservative whip, has told ITV’s Peston: He should quit because he’s making things worse. People have been great during the lockdown. In a really difficult period, they have complied. And now they’re confused and that makes them angry and I think that will have consequences. So when he thinks, as any of us working in government must, ‘am I adding here, am I helping?’ he can only conclude that his presence is making things worse at a time when we’re already in a crisis. Responding to the launch of the test and trace system in England (see 4.45pm), the British Medical Association public health medicine committee member and former chairwoman Dr Penelope Toff has said: Having a robust test, track and trace system in place is vital to being able to effectively prevent a second wave of infection and to ensure that we can safely ease out of lockdown. What will be absolutely crucial is that the government can implement this effectively with all the components in place, so it can run at capacity. Success will not just hinge on the availability of testing and delivering test results quickly but on rapid identification of contacts and support to enable them to self-isolate. There is a very real concern that as funding has only now been made available at local level, and as much of the local contact tracing will need to be done in person, there is the potential for some of these systems to become overwhelmed with the sudden surge in demand. It is vital that adequate support is on hand, to enable all directors of public health and Public Health England consultants leading these local systems, to deliver this effectively. The safety of the public and key workers is paramount and given the limits of the test itself, self-isolation of those with symptoms and their contacts is even more vital. This will require good communication with the public at a national level. Establishing local test, track and trace is a step in the right direction but will require significant resources, monitoring and vigilance to ensure that it is working effectively across the country. Alicia Kearns, the Tory MP for Rutland and Melton, is another to criticise Cummings, while stopping short of calling for his departure. A statement posted on her website reads: Over the weekend. I relentlessly pressed for more information to get the facts of what happened, I believed that was the least the British people were owed. On Monday, we received more of the information that residents had been calling for: I wish this information had been made available at an earlier time. I do not support Mr Cummings’ actions. I would not have done the same. Mr Cummings believed he was protecting his family, and not just from his fear of not being able to care for his child, but from the abuse his family was enduring at their home. I know what it is to be a worried parent, but his actions have caused much disappointment. Mr Cummings has accepted that he could have done better. I agree. With regards to his travelling to County Durham, he was acting within the very limits of what Deputy Chief Medical Advisor Dr Harries OBE set out at the daily televised press conference on 24th March when she said ‘clearly if you have adults that are unable to look after a small child, that is an exceptional circumstance’. It is for the police, not me, to determine whether Mr Cummings breached the lockdown guidelines. Durham police had publicly stated that there was no case to answer. However, since then they are now investigating and dependent on the outcome, I will make a further statement. And, on Sunday, the MP for Winchester and Chandler’s Ford Steve Brine posted a statement on his personal website saying he too has spoken to the chief whip. The Guardian has also been passed an email from him to constituents in which he said: In a painfully difficult time when the government, trying as it is to safely ease the necessary restrictions on our lives, needs to retain public trust this is unhelpful to put it mildly. Furthermore, when the UK has north of 36,000 deaths from this awful pandemic, it’s a distraction for ministers – and proper scrutiny from the media on track and trace, vaccine etc – which I would think this country can ill afford right now. Public adherence to the rules is done by consent in this country and that is made much harder if people feel, no matter that these events were some time ago, it’s one rule for them and another for senior government advisors. I have this lunchtime robustly raised my concerns and disappointment at Mr Cumming’s behaviour in the most appropriate – and I believe effective way – with the government chief whip. Ultimately, it is for the prime minister to decide the future of his senior advisors. Brine has not responded to a request for comment. More Tory MPs have expressed concerns about Cummings’ actions, while stopping short of calling for his removal from No 10. The Guardian has been passed an email to a constituent from the former education secretary, Damian Hinds. He said he believes that, at the very least, Cummings breached the spirit of the rules. The key tasks at hand are fighting this terrible virus, dealing with all its knock-on effects, and starting to move gradually and cautiously towards reopening more of the economy and society more broadly. It is essential that attention is not further deflected from these priorities. I am not convinced that changing personnel at this stage would actually help that, and there is a real possibility it could have the opposite effect. But it does need to be acknowledged that in the case of Mr Cummings mistakes were made and the spirit, at least, of the rules broken, whatever the motivation; and acknowledged again the huge restrictions and privations that the country as a whole has withstood. The Tory backbencher Royston Smith has called for Cummings to resign or be sacked, taking the number of Conservative MPs who have done so to 44. We are in the middle of the worst health and financial crisis this country has faced since the war. Unfortunately, the Dominic Cummings saga has become a distraction from the very urgent issues facing the country. We cannot allow crucial messaging and public understanding to be clouded by this, and for that reason I feel it is time Mr Cummings stood aside so that the government can dedicate all its resources to managing the pandemic and our way out of it. Former senior Tory cabinet minister criticises Cummings The former de facto deputy prime minister Damian Green has lamented the damage done to the government’s public health efforts by Cummings’s lockdown breach, but stopped short of calling for him to resign or be sacked. In a letter to a constituent, Green has said: I have expressed my own displeasure, and the anger of many of those who wrote to me, both to the chief whip and to cabinet ministers. No one at the top of government can be unaware of the widespread public anger at Dominic Cummings’ actions. Many of the individual points put in emails to me have been relayed to senior ministers. Green, who was sacked as first secretary of state in 2017 after admitting he lied about the presence of pornographic images on his House of Commons computer, added: We all know that some families have suffered appallingly during the lockdown, not just losing relatives but being unable to comfort them at the end. For many more there has been the pain of long-term separation from close family members. It is possible to put up with this if we all accept that we are in the same boat. A combination of Dominic Cummings’s actions and the way they were reported has clearly damaged that sense of solidarity, as is reflected in many of the emails I have received.