Johnson blocks questions to chief scientists over Cummings

Whitty and Vallance return at press conference but are kept out of ‘political’ row

The prime minister has intervened to block questioning by the media of his two most senior scientific advisers during an ill tempered daily coronavirus press conference on 28 May.

As the row over whether Boris Johnson’s adviser Dominic Cummings broke the spirit or the letter of lockdown rules continued to fester, Boris Johnson said chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance and chief medical officer Chris Whitty (pictured) should not answer questions about the matter.