A heart doctor working in a coronavirus intensive care unit has pledged to quit his job by the end of the week if Dominic Cummings remains a senior adviser to Boris Johnson despite travelling across Britain during the lockdown.
The prime minister standing by his man despite his seemingly flagrant lockdown breaches prompted an eruption of outrage across the UK on Sunday.
Dr Dominic Pimenta was so enraged that he threatened to give up his livelihood if the political strategist doesn’t get the boot, saying Cummings actions “spits in the face of all our efforts.”
The cardiology registrar tweeted a photo of himself kitted out in personal protective equipment, saying: “This is me right now, heading back into the Covid ICU I’ve worked in for the last two months. This stuff is hot and hard work. Haven’t seen my parents since January.
Frankly, Cummings spits in the face of all our efforts, the whole #NHS. If he doesn’t resign, I will.
Dr Pimenta said that he will announce his decision to quit by the end of the week if Cummings is still in his position. He also shared a message that urged other National Health Service staff to threaten to resign.
The doctor’s tweet went viral, racking up nearly 40,000 likes, as furious Brits expressed rage at their government. Unsurprisingly, in the partisan landscape of Twitter, not everyone believes that Dr Pimenta will actually resign. However, the registrar was defiant, even challenging one of his doubters to a bet on whether he’ll follow through.
It comes amid the fallout of Boris Johnson publicly backing his embattled aide during a swirl of controversy about Cummings’ 260-mile journey from London to Durham. The PM was accused of risking the UK’s efforts to combat Covid-19 in order to defend his adviser, following Sunday’s poorly received Downing Street press conference.
Johnson said Cummings had “acted responsibly, legally, and with integrity,” when he took the cross-country jaunt in April.
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