CORONATION Street star Simon Gregson has come under fire from furious fans this evening after he defended Dominic Cummings over accusations he broke lockdown rules.
The Steve McDonald actor, 45, ranted "family first always" in a bizarre tweet as the Prime Minister's top aide backed his decision to make a 260-mile trip to Durham during lockdown.
Simon wrote: "This discussion gives me the s***s. Family first ALWAYS. regardless. People have crawled through s**t ,gun fire,climbing over dead friends to be with.
"Put your bull s**t away d**k Ed’s coz you’d do the same. Plus back off press 2 Mtrs k**b s**s."
The final part of his rant referenced journalists who doorstepped Cummings outside his London home after news of his trip broke.
However, the soap favourite, who is a married father-of-three, was forced to back down after an angry response from followers.
One called Cummings' behaviour a "slap in the face" to everyone who has sacrificed seeing loved ones during the lockdown.
A nurse said she was "appalled" by the actor's words having seen people die from the disease with no one by their side.
While a third told him off for swearing and another called it a "bad take."
After reading the responses to his post, Simon wrote: "Ok I take it back to understand that we could all ways do that. So I hold my hands up and say. BD choice of words.
"But. Wouldn’t you? Fine line people. Let’s not be told but imagine. ?."
This evening Cummings said he received threats of violence to his home after false claims he opposed lockdown in favour of herd immunity.
The PM's adviser made the revelation as he defended himself over his trip to Durham in March.
The defence of his actions comes amid calls for him to resign or be sacked by Mr Johnson for travelling to County Durham to self-isolate with his family after his wife developed coronavirus symptoms.
Mr Cummings said stories had suggested he had opposed lockdown and "did not care about many deaths”.
"The truth is that I had argued for lockdown,” he said.
"I did not oppose it, but these stories had created a very bad atmosphere around my home, I was subjected to threats of violence, people came to my house shouting threats, there were posts on social media encouraging attacks."
Mr Cummings said he was worried that "this situation would get worse".
"I was worried about the possibility of leaving my wife and child at home all day and often into the night while I worked in Number 10,” he said.
"I thought the best thing to do in all the circumstances was to drive to an isolated cottage on my father's farm.”
Mr Cummings also said allegations he returned to Durham for a second visit after April 14 are “false”.
He conceded that "reasonable people may well disagree about how I thought about what to do in the circumstances", but said: "I don't regret what I did."
"I think what I did was actually reasonable in these circumstances," he said.
"The rules made clear that if you are dealing with small children that can be exceptional circumstances.
"And I think that the situation that I was in was exceptional circumstances and the way that I dealt with it was the least risk to everybody concerned if my wife and I had both been unable to look after our four-year-old."
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