PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson has backed his top aide Dominic Cummings over allegations he breached lockdown restrictions, saying: “He has acted responsibly, legally and with integrity”.

The Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference: “I have had extensive face-to-face conversations with Dominic Cummings and I have concluded that in travelling to find the right kind of childcare, at the moment when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by coronavirus – and when he had no alternative – I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent.

“And I do not mark him down for that.”

Boris Johnson said “some” of the allegations about Dominic Cummings’ behaviour during self-isolation were “palpably false”.

“Though there have been many other allegations about what happened when he was in self-isolation and thereafter, some of them palpably false, I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly and legally and with integrity and with the overwhelming aim of stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives.”