"I don't regret what I did," Dominic Cummings told reporters on Monday after Downing Street took the extraordinary step of putting the special adviser in front of the media to respond to the saga.
Cummings was repeatedly pressed to say sorry to the British people for traveling 260 miles across England and staying at a house on his parents' property, at a time when the public was being urged not to leave their homes.
But he said that he thought making the journey was "the best thing to do," and blamed media reports for creating "a very bad atmosphere" around his London home.
And he insisted that another drive he made to the town of Barnard Castle, several miles from his parents' home, was so that he could test his eyesight and make sure he was healthy enough to then drive back to London -- an explanation that was immediately questioned by opposition politicians.
Cummings' journey has sparked a scandal in Britain that has clouded Johnson's attempts to deal with his country's coronavirus outbreak.
The aide said he did not ask the Prime Minister about his decision to travel outside of London beforehand. "In retrospect I should have made this statement earlier," Cummings accepted. But when asked whether he should have checked with Johnson before making his journey, Cummings said: "I don't know ... maybe I should have."
The Prime Minister has been under intense pressure from across the political spectrum to sack Cummings, the enigmatic aide often portrayed as the brains behind his premiership and populist message, after it emerged he made the journey to the north of England while his wife was sick with coronavirus symptoms in late March.
Johnson was, at the time, urging British people to "stay at home" and instructing them to self-isolate if they had been exposed to symptoms. Lawmakers across the political spectrum have said Cummings' actions undermine those rules and imply that Johnson is allowing his allies to act in a way the public are not allowed to.
But the Prime Minister has stood by his ally, saying on Sunday that he had "no alternative" but to make the journey and insisting he acted "responsibly, legally and with integrity."
"I know that millions of people in this country have been suffering, thousands have died, many are angry about what they have seen in the media about my actions," Cummings said at the outset of an unprecedented statement in Downing Street's Rose Garden.
He went on to walk the press through details of his two-week trip to Durham, but did little to appease critics who have asked why he was allowed to interpret the rules as he saw fit when the public was not given the same leeway.
"This is actually painful to watch," Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted. "He clearly broke the rules, the Prime Minister has failed to act in the National interest. He should have never allowed this situation with a member of his staff."
"There cannot be one rule for Dominic Cummings and another for the British people," the opposition Labour Party said in a statement before his press conference.
"Sorry this just doesn't add up. You're so sick you worry that your eyesight is impaired yet you drive miles with your child in the car to check whether you can drive further? A clear nonsense. Patent nonsense," Labour MP Chris Bryant wrote on Twitter.
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Boris Johnson aide Dominic Cummings defends lockdown trip amid UK scandal - CNN
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