DOMINIC Cummings has revealed he travelled to his family's farm in County Durham due to security threats at his home in London.

Cummings stands by his decision to visit the North-East due to security threats but apologises for not telling whole story. 

He also stands by the account whereby he visited Barnard Castle on his wife's birthday to test his eyes, saying: "If I was going to come up with a story I would come up with a better story than that."

He said it "did not seem crazy" that he was testing his eyesight with his wife and child in the car but apologised for "the whole debacle". 

He said in February his wife had told him there was a gang outside the family home “saying they’re going to break into the house and kill everybody inside”, and it was decided with the Cabinet Office after that – combined with press coverage with prompted more threats – that he would move his family out of London to his parents’ home in County Durham regardless of lockdown rules.

Pressed as to why he did not apologise at the time, Cummings said: "Well, as I have tried to explain there were multiple things going on in my head. I couldn't really tell the whole story, I felt like I couldn't but I should have done and I didn't.

"I think my behaviour in leaving London at the time was perfectly reasonable and other people in the cabinet office and other people agreed with me I could move my family out to Durham. 

"I wasn't sorry about moving them out of London, I didn't think it was a mistake I thought it was the right thing to do.

"Obviously, I am really sorry about the way things worked out. The reality of it I had to move my family back out of London twice again but I did not leave London."

He said he made a "terrible mistake".

The apology comes as Cummings gives evidence to the Commons health and science committees, which is looking at 'lessons learnt' during the pandemic. 

Cummings is giving his account of the Government's handling of Covid based on his time at No. 10. 

Reports suggest Mr Johnson’s senior aide Dominic Cummings allegedly broke the Government’s lockdown rules emerged on May 22, 2020, when he was spotted at his parents’ property in County Durham.

He was said to be recovering from coronavirus symptoms after travelling from his London home with his wife, who also fell ill, and son.

A second eyewitness told newspapers on May 23 2020 they saw Cummings a week earlier in Barnard Castle, 30 miles away from Durham, during the period he was believed to be self-isolating.

Cummings defended his actions at a press conference in the Downing Street rose garden, saying he believes he behaved “reasonably” and does not regret his actions.

The former advisor sticks by his story but says he was holding back some information, and that he left London after receiving threats at their home. He said his family were moved out of London twice more, but he did not leave the capital again.

Cummings told MPs he was “extremely sorry” about the episode and that “that whole episode was definitely a major disaster for the Government and for the Covid policy”.

After his trip was reported by newspapers, he said: “The Prime Minister and I agreed that because of the security things, we would basically just stonewall the story and not say anything about it.

“I was extremely mindful of the problem that when you talk about these things, you cause more trouble for yourself, and I’d already put my wife and child in the firing line on it. So I said, I’m not talking about this, we should shut our mouths about it.”

However, he said the PM came under pressure to explain and it was agreed the press conference would be called, but Mr Cummings said he made the “terrible, terrible, terrible mistake” of not sending his family out of London again and telling the whole truth.

“I ended up giving the whole rose garden thing where what I said was true, but we left out a kind of crucial part of it all,” he said.

“And it just … the whole thing was a complete disaster and the truth is – and then it undermined public confidence in the whole thing – the truth is, if I just when the Prime Minister said on a Monday, ‘we can’t hold this line, we’re going to have to explain things’, if I just basically sent my family back out of London and said here’s the truth to the public, I think people would have understood the situation.

“It was a terrible misjudgment not to do that. So I take … the Prime Minister got that wrong, I got that wrong.”