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Douglas Ross has resigned in protest at Boris Johnson's chief adviser taking a trip across the country when the country was in lockdown. /House of Commons
A junior minister has resigned from Boris Johnson's UK government over the controversy about the Prime Minister's top adviser's apparent breach of UK lockdown rules.
Douglas Ross, who worked at the Scotland Office, has resigned following Dominic Cummings' defence of his trip across the country during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.
It is the first resignation in Boris Johnson's government in response to the incident.
Ministers have tried to move on from the crisis, which has been at the center of British politics in recent days. Undermining these attempts, Ross said he could not justify to the people he serves as a member of parliament Cummings remaining in his post.
"I have constituents who didn't get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn't visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government," the MP for Moray, Scotland, said in a Twitter statement announcing his departure.
"I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right."
He also said Cummings' interpretation of government rules was "not shared by the vast majority of people."
The resignation will put increased pressure on Cummings, who held a press conference on Monday to justify driving his wife and young son on a 425-kilometer trip from London to Durham in the northeast of England during the peak of the coronavirus crisis.
Downing Street has responded to the resignation saying it "regrets" the minister's decision.
