WATCH: Furious Labour MP demands PM apologise for not sacking Cummings

Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi has demanded that Boris Johnson “finally” apologise for not sacking Dominic Cummings when he broke coronavirus lockdown rules at the height of the pandemic in an emotional speech in parliament.

Recounting his own personal losses during the health crisis during PMQs this afternoon, Singh Dhesi told MPs of the death of his family members and condemned “sycophantic, spineless, hypocritical” ministers who defended Cummings.

“My grandmother, whom I love dearly, was lying on her hospital deathbed and none of us were allowed to be there to comfort her in her final moments. I couldn’t even carry her coffin on my shoulders,” he said today.

“I also had to endure the agony of watching, alone, online, the funeral of my uncle – my fun-loving uncle – and we were not there to comfort my brother-in-law’s father who had somehow contracted Covid in a Slough care home during his final moments. All this because we followed government guidance.

“Having experienced such painful, personal sacrifices – like many others – imagine our collective disgust when in order to curry favour with the PM’s chief adviser, we see sycophantic, spineless, hypocritical government ministers lining up to defend the indefensible.

“Saying it’s time to move on, with some even having the gall to tell us that they too go for a long drive when they need to get their eyesight tested. What an absolute disgrace and they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

“So when is the Prime Minister finally going to apologise to the nation for not mustering up some courage and integrity for doing the honourable thing and sacking his chief adviser, who so shamelessly flouted his government’s guidance?

“He could have regained that lost trust and public confidence and he could have demonstrated that it’s not one rule for him and his elite chums and another for the rest of us plebs.”

“I apologise for the suffering of the people that this country have endured,” Johnson said. “All I can say is that nothing I can say or do can take back the lost lives, the lost time spent with loved ones that he described. And I’m deeply, deeply sorry for that.”

Cummings caused controversy last year after admitting in a press conference that he drove from London to Durham during lockdown with his wife who was ill and his child, and explained that he did so because he was seeking childcare.

The adviser to the Prime Minister also claimed that he drove for 30 minutes from his parents’ home in Durham to Barnard Castle, with his family in the car, in order to test his eyesight after being ill.

He was awarded a 40% pay rise last year, being paid the equivalent of £140,000-£144,999. Labour criticised the “bumper bonus” in light of his rule breaking and ministers at the same time pursuing real-term pay cuts for public sector workers.