"I suddenly got a call from my wife who was at home looking after our four year old child. She told me she suddenly felt badly ill. She'd vomited and felt like she might pass out. And there'll be nobody to look after our child. None of our usual childcare options were available. They were alone in the house. After very briefly telling some officials in No.10 what had happened, I immediately left the building, ran to a car and drove home.
This was reported by the media at the time who saw me run out of No. 10. After a couple of hours, my wife felt a bit better. There were many critical things at work and she urged me to return in the afternoon and I did. That evening, I returned home and discussed the situation with my wife.
She was ill. She might have Covid, though she did not have a cough or a fever. At this point, most of those who I work with most closely, including the prime minister himself and others who sit within 15 feet of me every day, either had had symptoms and had returned to work or were absent with symptoms."
There is no explanation, or excuse he can make. This was a blatant disregard for public health, and a clear breach of guidelines and law. Even if the rest of his story was 100% accurate. This alone should have seen him gone.
When we had symptoms at the start of March, we immediately pulled our daughter from school and both closed our businesses. If we'd continued, it'd have been a breach of the law. We must be utter mugs, my wife should've continued to see clients as she didn't have a cough, and the 7 day isolation could have started a day later than our symptoms appeared.
As someone else said, if he just came out and said he cocked up this would probably have been chip paper today. But he didn't, and it isn't.
