Downing Street has backed a minister who travelled 150 miles from London to a property he owns in rural Herefordshire during the coronavirus lockdown.
Days after chairing a government news conference in Westminster to reinforce the “stay at home” message, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick appeared on Sky News via video link from the seventeenth century manor house he owns in the hamlet of Eye.
This is despite the Nottinghamshire MP’s website stating his family live 120 miles away in his constituency of Newark as well as in London.
Government guidance on essential travel says the public should not visit second homes and must “remain in their primary residence”.
But the PM’s official spokesman said the minister had set out his reasons for the journey and “we’re confident he complied with the social distancing rules”.
The spokesman said Mr Jenrick has said himself that his wife and children consider their Herefordshire home to be their family home.
Asked about ministers commuting to and from London, he said: “Like everybody else, ministers have been told to work from home wherever possible, and not make unnecessary journeys.
“As part of the coronavirus response there will be occasions when ministers have no option but to work from Whitehall.
“In the event this is required, and the rest of their household is living elsewhere, it’s not an unnecessary journey for them to travel to rejoin their family.”
It is understood that the housing secretary and his wife usually spend their working week in London but live in Herefordshire whenever possible.
Sky News has asked Mr Jenrick for clarification over where his children go to school and where he pays his council tax.
The minister has also defended visiting his elderly parents 40 miles away during the lockdown.
Mr Jenrick explained that he was delivering medicine and other essential items to them as they are self-isolating at home due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Mr Jenrick added that he had respected the government’s social distancing guidelines.
Government guidelines say you should not visit anyone who lives outside your home, including elderly relatives, but you are allowed to “leave your house to help them, for example by dropping shopping or medication at their door”.
Mr Jenrick’s visit was revealed by The Guardian, which quoted a witness as saying they saw the minister visiting his parents’ Shropshire house at the weekend
Responding to the report, Mr Jenrick wrote on Twitter: “For clarity – my parents asked me to deliver some essentials – including medicines.
“They are both self-isolating due to age and my father’s medical condition and I respected social distancing rules.”
He included a link to The Guardian’s story in his tweet.
The head of Public Health England has said Mr Jenrick appeared to act “within the guidelines”.
“I can’t comment on Mr Jenrick, it sounds as if what he did was within one of the four guidelines to me, but others will obviously have to think about that more,” Paul Cosford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds also told the BBC it was “very important for public confidence” that Mr Jenrick explained himself, but said if he had delivered medicine to his parents, “clearly… it fits within the four exceptions”.
Mr Jenrick said he would be remaining at the family home until government advice changes or he is needed at Westminster.
Former Nottinghamshire Conservative MP Anna Soubry accused the housing secretary of “selfish arrogance” and said ministers must “practise what they preach”.
Labour’s shadow communities secretary Steve Reed called on the cabinet minister to “explain why this journey was unavoidable or consider his position”.
His wife Michal Berkner is a partner at the London branch of international law firm Cooley LLP and the couple own a townhouse within walking distance of Westminster.
Mr Jenrick also rents a property in his constituency of Newark where he stays when on constituency business.
Expenses receipts lodged by the cabinet minister show he claimed more than £23,000 for rental accommodation between April 2018 and March 2019.
Before becoming an MP in 2014, Mr Jenrick worked in business and law and was chairman of the Conservative Association in North Herefordshire.
Source: Skynews
