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INTEGRITY VERSUS DOMINIC CUMMINGS 26 May 2020 TO: MP FROM: Pete Williams Dear MP I am writing as one of your constituents to express my dismay at your behaviour.

I had hoped that you might have shown some restraint and at least kept quiet while Boris, Michael, Matt and Dom (he has a big brain you know, obviously an endearing quality) all debased themselves and your woeful party over the weekend.

Imagine my disappointment to have your tweet pointed out to me.

In the past you have tended to keep quiet at opportune moments, but clearly things are stressful and fractured for you. Your message that it is “time to move on” (funny how many other Conservative MPs are using the same phrase, isn’t it?) was a new low. You refer to Cummings being “full, frank and honest” in his statement, when it patently was the opposite. (Just watch Boris and Matt at those press briefings, cringe at Michael on LBC this morning saying how he can’t comment because he’s not a good driver: all clearly just wanting the world to swallow them up. If they can’t even pretend things are OK, why would you even try?)

In addition to repeatedly changing his account (after several weeks trying to deny that there was even an issue), Cummings even lied again during his disgraceful performance in his Downing Street back garden.

He referred to having been ahead of the curve in warning about a coronavirus when he actually rewrote his own history a month ago to try and make it look like that. That, in itself, is appalling. It might not be new behaviour but, in the light of the current crisis it demonstrated his utter contempt for other people. The sad thing for you is that if you accept this behaviour, it is contempt for you too. I suspect that, secretly, you know this.

As a human being, he could have just done as other people had: he could have said that he acted on instinct to protect his family but now recognises that he made a mistake. If he had had any integrity, he would have then offered his resignation, like other people have. People might have accepted that. What he actually did was say that the rules which he played a major part in imposing on the rest of us, did not apply to him.

He sought sympathy at the same time as showing no empathy for the rest of the country.

With all the wealth and influence, the 80 odd seat majority your government has, and your own unhealthy majority in the Sherwood constituency that you have to fall back on, you still needed to support such distortions?

I have worked in health and social care for 35 years and been frequently distressed at what has happened in this country over the last few months. When this crisis started, I tried to be patient and hope that your government would respond to minimise the suffering that people have had to endure. However, at every turn, your government has focused more on managing the message than taking the most appropriate action.

You all deny your policy is herd immunity, but this fits with it perfectly.

This is all epitomised by the complete lack of integrity over the response Cummings’ behaviour in the last few days.

In my work, I regularly visit nursing and residential care homes, domiciliary care services and a range of other care settings. I am lucky as I have had to work at home, but I have also had to listen to the sacrifices people have made while your government has denied there is a problem, or just simply lied about.

I have seen one home I work with lose 13 (THIRTEEN) residents in less than two weeks, with lack of PPE and people with Covid 19 deliberately discharged to them from hospital; I have sat and cried after listening to one staff member of another home when she told of her best friend, another care worker, dying at that home, and then for her to see that woman’s mother (also a care worker in the same home) die two weeks later - both from Covid 19; I have listened to numerous other care

workers in despair and sometimes panic when they have had the disease or similar symptoms. Most of them have referred to the lack of support - the lack of PPE, testing, access to GPs - while your government has been applauding itself on its behaviour. Matt Hancock tells his own stories and a recent one is how you have put a “ring” around care homes. Tell that to the people above.

In my own personal life, my wife has had to shield herself for the last 10 weeks and has experienced the birth of her first grandchild with only one brief sighting of him, from a distance, at a time when your government said it was acceptable for his parents to come and stand at the end of our garden. Sadness does not even touch it. She has been prepared to tolerate this because she hoped that your government would do what is best for all of us. She is a gentle person and I have never seen her so enraged over the last few days: enraged at one rule for your associates and another for the rest of us. I have known other people at the end of their tether not knowing how to care for their children when they have had Covid 19 type symptoms. They stayed at home and made the best of it.

I would therefore be grateful if you, as my MP, would stop repeating utterly insensitive, inaccurate and inflammatory messages like your recent one.

You have stepped down a long way, Mark, and you know it. The “misinformation” about Dominic Cummings started with him - hey, that’s all he does: “spin” doesn’t even close to it.

You need to redeem yourself. One simple way of getting everyone to “move on” is to sack that odious, lying, manipulative elitist so that we can actually work together “nationally” to fight this pandemic. Protecting him more passionately and stridently than protecting key workers is the wrong response. Do the right thing, you’ll feel better for it, and you might even get back some of the respect local people have lost in you.

Yours Sincerely Pete Williams

MR. DOMINIC CUMMINGS SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE PRIME MINISTER 03 June 2020 TO: Pete Williams FROM: MP Dear Pete Thank you for contacting me regarding the conduct of Mr. Dominic Cummings.

I understand the concerns that you have raised. We have all endured great hardship over the last few months, many of us have lost friends and family members, we have lost our way of life, and for some-it may be a while before we are able to return to normal. The Government’s restrictions have been a series of necessary measures which we have all had to bear. I want to thank you for playing your part in reducing the R Rate. Through all of our actions, we managed to stop the NHS becoming overwhelmed, we managed to keep the number of infections from getting out of control, and we were able to protect some of the most vulnerable in society.

However, I accept that there have been some people who have chosen not to have follow the rules. I understand and share in your anger.

Like you, there are so many people that I can’t wait to see again, but I understand that by not seeing them I am protecting their health. Some people simply did not abide by the rules, and frankly- it has let us all down.

I wanted to respond to these emails once I was in possession of the facts.

Having listened to Mr. Cummings’ statement that he made in the Rose Garden on Bank Holiday Monday, I am satisfied that he acted in accordance with the letter of the law.

While I understand that you may not agree with this assessment, and that you may believe that what Mr Cummings did violated our shared sense of moral obedience- of not just the word but the spirit of the law- I urge you, and all my constituents to be compassionate in this matter.

As a parent myself, I know the pressure that exists to take the right decisions for your children. Whilst I’m unsure if I would have come to the same decision, I completely empathise with the situation Mr. Cummings was faced with. I accept his version of events and it is my understanding that these fall in line with Government guidelines. Durham Police have decided to take no further action on this matter.

It is clear that Mr. Cummings had some acute childcare needs that needed to be met in the event of his, or his wife’s incapacitation at the hands of the Coronavirus. He made a decision for the good of his child.

Again, whilst I’m unsure I would have reached the same decision as Mr. Cummings, we are unaware of his family’s situation- and I would not expect, nor wish him to lay out these details, just to be judged in the Court of Public Opinion.

As a nation, we have come a long way in our collective battle with the Coronavirus- lets not allow this to blow us off track, lets not drop the emphasis on staying alert. We have made great progress, but this is fragile. We need to keep the R rate low- bring Britain back to health and rebuild our Country and our economy.

Thank you for doing what you are doing to support the Government’s efforts to protect us all from the Coronavirus, and thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Yours Sincerely MP

INTEGRITY VERSUS DOMINIC CUMMINGS 06 June 2020 TO: MP FROM: Pete Williams Dear MP I appreciate your replying, and would be grateful if you would just read this response. I do not have any expectation that you will respond to this email, but I must say that your response below reflects a very disappointing error of judgement by you.

Dominic Cummings is a devious, lying sociopath and you know this to be true.

One simple issue shouts this out from his televised speech from the garden at 10 Downing Street: amidst all the other details he referred to, not only did he not apologise (which, if done sincerely, I would have accepted), he felt it appropriate to spread another lie which only had the purpose of trying to make himself appear as someone who knows better than the rest of us. He stated that he had foreseen the type of pandemic we are facing in 2019, and in April 2020 he revised his own history by amending his blogs to make it look that way. This narcissistic response has single-handedly destroyed any serious expectation that large sections of the public will continue to adhere to social distancing expectations. I have serious concerns that you either know this and ignore it, or you are oblivious to it. We now have over 40,000 “excess” deaths according to your own figures; reliable calculations by independent sources suggest the actual figure is more like 60,000 to 65,000. Many more will result from the behaviour of Cummings and your own government’s willingness to protect him at (literally) whatever cost is necessary.

His (I really do find it difficult to refer to him as “Mr” Cummings) behaviour is entirely consistent with his previous behaviour in public life over the last ten years. He is prepared to say and do whatever he

He is a threat to our democracy, and your defending him does you and your party no credit whatsoever. You and your cabinet colleagues have put the ego and career of this despicable individual before your public health responsibilities.

Hang your head in shame.

Yours Sincerely Pete Williams