FIRST rule of politics: when in a hole stop digging.

In the midst of the political storm Boris Johnson has deployed the Cummings strategy of double-down, which might work in normal political times but when the country is facing the biggest crisis since the Second World War, it is unlikely to be effective.

The Prime Minister insisted Dominic Cummings “followed the instincts of every father and every parent” in seeking to protect his child. Of course, every parent has that natural instinct but the Government was telling people to follow the rules, not their instincts.

If everyone had done what his chief aide did, then the threat to increasing the R-rate of infection could well have increased.

Self-sacrifice has become the order of the day. There is probably not a person in the country who is not suffering from being away from their loved ones.

We all know of cases where parents have been self-isolating away from their children and relatives have been denied the right to see sick loved ones; some have even had to endure the agonising experience of not being able to attend funerals. Heartache stretches the length and breadth of the land.

The daily Downing St press conference, which Mr Johnson hurriedly fronted in light of the hoohah, produced more questions that answers.

Mr Johnson conspicuously failed to answer the claim that, while in Durham, Mr Cummings supposedly visited Barnard Castle 30 miles away. Nor did the PM address the point of how dangerous it was for an infected parent to share a car with their child. And answer was there none when he was quizzed if he knew about his aides 250-mile flit to Durham.

The PM, who performed two U-turns last week, possibly thought a third one would have unconscionable. But judgement is everything in politics.

What Mr Johnson has guaranteed is the Cummings row will rumble on, certainly up to Wednesday when the PM will be grilled by the Commons Liaison Committee of committee chairmen and women and possibly through to next week when Westminster returns. By which time, the hole Mr Johnson has dug for himself might have become inescapable.