A petition calling for Dominic Cummings to be sacked has passed half a million signatures in just three days.
The Prime Minister’s aide refused to apologise yesterday following reports that he travelled to Durham during lockdown.
He said he believed he behaved “reasonably” and did not regret his actions.
It comes after the Boris Johnson gave him his backing, saying Mr Cummings had “acted responsibly, legally and with integrity”.
Petition
A petition, launched on Change.org, has racked up more than 650,000 signatures since news broke of the lockdown flout.
Under parliamentary procedure petitions signed by 10,000 people will get a response from the government, with those signed by more than 100,000 people considered for debate in parliament.
However, the appeals could fall on deaf ears due to a stipulation that petitions can only be debated if they are hosted on the government’s website (petition.parliament.uk).
Jacob Rees-Mogg recently stated that: “Petitions started on other websites are not considered for debate.
“This is because the Petitions Committee is not able to verify the signatures on the petition or contact petitioners about any parliamentary business.”
Related: Just 3 Tory MPs support Cummings in backbench group – here’s who they are