'We haven't had a sensible justification,' says Somerset MP David Warburton, who called for Dominic Cummings to go

Mr Cummings, Boris Johnson's senior adviser, sparked controversy after it was revealed he drove - with his family - to his parents' estate in County Durham to self isolate along with is wife and four-year-old child.

However, it has since been claimed he also took several other actions which broke the official government guidelines surrounding lockdown and self isolation.

Now, Somerton and Frome MP David Warburton has spoken out on the issue, and revealed his father had 'died alone' during the lockdown.

READ MORE: Dominic Cummings defends lockdown trip to County Durham

Mr Warburton, a Conservative, gave BBC Breakfast his reaction to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's stoic defence of Mr Cummings at a Downing Street briefing on Sunday (May 24).

"I wasn't terribly impressed with his conclusions," he said.

"Although I do understand, we all understand Dominic Cummings' instincts - many of us are parents and understand his wish to do the best for his family - but we've not been offered the chance to interpret the rules. That's really not how it works, otherwise there'd be complete chaos."

And he said his own family had been touched by tragedy during the lockdown.

"We've all suffered under the regulations, there are parents not able to see children, elderly people isolated and alone - people like my own father, who died alone - relatives put off from people they love," he said.

"But what my constituents are seeing - and what I'm hearing from hundreds and hundreds of emails and letters and phone calls - is double standards, and that's really not a good look, particularly when it surrounds someone who's themselves been part of defining the rules which all the rest of us have to endure."

He said the Prime Minister's defence of Mr Cummings, in which he said the advisor had acted "responsibly, legally, and with integrity" in making the 250-mile journey north when his wife was showing Covid-19 symptoms.

Mr Cummings had 'followed the instincts of any parent', the Prime Minister added.

But calls for Mr Cummings to resign or be sacked - including from within the Conservative Party - have continued today (Tuesday) and Mr Warburton voiced the concerns of constituents he said had contacted him.

"People have made sacrifices, this is a difficult time, this is a time of national crisis," he said.

"But in those sacrifices there really hasn't been the choice to use instincts, instinct really hasn't been part of it.

"We've been tasked with following regulations laid down by the Government and it doesn't look good when the Government's chief adviser is not, doesn't seem to be - if he's not - following those same rules and regulations.

"And what's happened subsequently is, he's become an enormous distraction at a time when we don't need distractions, at a time when we need confidence in the Government and not Government needs the kind of authority and respect necessary to get us through this and out the other side."

CLOSE TIES: Prime Minister Boris Johnson with his special advisor, Dominic Cummings. PICTURE: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Mr Cummings should either resign or be sacked by Mr Johnson, the MP added.

"Ideally, if he broke the rules, then he obviously should be subject to the same kind of consequences as anybody else who breaks the rules," he added.

"Ideally, if he put up his hand and apologised, 'it's a fair cop, I got it wrong, I'm sorry', it might have all washed away, or if he'd resigned, as advisers used to do, then great.

"Or better still, if the Prime Minister had drawn a public line in the sand and sacked him, I think the vast majority of the public would have been both reassured by that sort of handling, and the seriousness of the Covid situation further impressed on them.

"But to me, enough is really enough and I think he's damaging the Government and the country he's supposed to be serving.

SADNESS: David Warburton lost his father during the lockdown

"Trial by social media is abhorrent. Social media is pretty much entirely poisonous, but it's about his own actions.

"I'm no fan of the hoardes of photographers outside his house, but again this means he's become the story.

"And people, from my correspondence, rightly or wrongly, feel like it's a bit of a kick in the teeth - and Downing Street is wearing the boot."

Amid condemnation of Mr Cummings' actions from some of the Government's own scientific advisers, Mr Warburton said: "These are simple messages that we've been given, certainly the initial lockdown messages were pretty simple and straightforward - 'Stay home, save lives', and if you find that you are infected, then stay home for 14 days, self isolate.

"And clearly, in this case, that hasn't happened.

"There's pretty universal condemnation for this with, I think, good reason, and to my mind we haven't had a sensible justification."

Downing Street has announced that Dominic Cummings is to give a press conference this afternoon (Monday) as the outcry continues.