WYRE Forest's MP Mark Garnier says he has received more emails than ever before from constituents condemning the Prime Minister's chief adviser Dominic Cummings for breaching lockdown rules.

The Conservative MP broke his silence on the debate in a radio interview after receiving hundreds of emails from outraged residents, and is now backing calls for Mr Cummings to resign.

Mr Garnier told The Shuttle the emails denouncing Cummings' actions - which saw him drive 260 miles to his parents’ property in Durham when his wife was experiencing coronavirus symptoms - outnumber those supporting him 100 to 1.

He said: "Whilst I have no affection for [Cummings], I do recognise that he has value in government and my initial thoughts were that he should probably be kept.

"But it is clear to me that despite his story, despite an element of politics in this, and despite his value to the government, his remaining in Number 10 now causes too many problems at multiple levels.

"For him to stay would be to reject the valiant efforts of millions of us all who have done what we can to squash this infection. His resignation is now the only way forward."

Mr Garnier added: "The guidance if sick is to stay at home – not any home, or someone else’s home, or even a second home. You must stay at you own home.

"He admitted to, firstly, going to Downing Street when he should have been self-isolating.

"He then, literally, packed his car with coronavirus and drove it to an area where there was relatively little infection.

"When he had recovered, he embarked on a bizarre road test of his ability to drive. This is in clear breach of the Highway Code rule 91 (fitness to drive) and rule 92 (eyesight).

"Aside from that, it was just plain dumb."

Mr Garnier cited a Sky interview with the Bishop of Worcester, who has since received death threats, where Bishop John Inge responded to a question about Boris Johnson's insistence that Mr Cummings was merely following a basic instinct to protect his family.

The bishop said that civilised society suppresses many basic instincts in the interest of civilisation and wider society.

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Mr Garnier responded: "That is what millions of people have done. They have obeyed the rules of lockdown against their own instincts and desires - to be with loved ones, to protect friends and family and to be with dying relatives - in order to protect wider society against this appalling disease.

"They have all done their bit, including many on the front line putting themselves and possibly their family at mortal risk. So why didn’t Dominic Cummings, an architect of all these measures, do likewise?"

Reacting to Mr Cummings' public statement, Mr Garnier said he sympathised with the plight of his family and the "media storm" the debate has caused.

He said: "Looking at his comments, and the fact that Durham Police have retracted their original statement and issued one clarified in Cummings’s favour, I have a small amount of sympathy for the plight of his family as they came down with CV19.

"His is an unusual position in that his home is high profile and he frequently has reporters camped outside his house.

"Indeed, his local MP has been reported as encouraging his neighbours to show their anger at him.

"Had he stayed in London, any help he secured for his four-year old son would have created its own media storm. To a certain extent he would be damned whatever he did."