Dominic Cummings has bought a home on Holy Island – sparking anger among its 147 inhabitants.
The disgraced former bigwig is renovating a £161,000 cottage on tourist hotspot Lindisfarne, off Northumberland.
Cummings, infamous for breaking lockdown rules while advising then-PM Boris Johnson, has not been met with a warm welcome.
One resident said they were “outraged” to have the former Downing Street guru for a neighbour.
Another said Cummings, 50, had a “supercilious” air about him and didn’t speak to other locals much.
“You know when people go to the pub and they just cross their legs and turn away from everyone else?” they said. “He’s like that”
Lindisfarne was founded by monks in the seventh century and today boasts three pubs, a hotel and a post office as well as gift shops for the many visitors.
It is only accessible by boat or over a causeway road which disappears under the fast-moving tides twice a day.
Drivers sometimes get cut off despite strong warnings against trying to cross at certain times.
That might cause problems for Cummings – who is best known for ignoring rules and having dodgy eyesight.
Due to the tides making school travel difficult, residents can send their children to Berwick’s posh £7,000-a-term Longridge Towers boarding school during the week for free.
The Sunday Mirror understands Cummings bought his pad over the summer.
“He’s here all the time,” one local told us. “But he’s not moved in yet because he’s still gutting the place.”
Many properties on the island are holiday lets or second homes.
It is not known if Boris Johnson’s former chief strategist will become a permanent resident but locals suspect he will use the cottage as a holiday home.
After the first lockdown was announced, the parish council urged visitors not to come to the island – as around 60% of the residents were classed as vulnerable.
In a statement issued on March 23, 2020 the council told holiday let owners to cancel bookings, and holiday home owners were asked to stay away.
Just days earlier Cummings took his infamous drive to Barnard Castle, Country Durham. When asked later why he had driven there, Cummings claimed to have been testing his eyesight, which he said had been affected by Covid.
Cummings’ son, Cedd, is named after St Cedd, an Anglo-Saxon saint who was trained at Lindisfarne Priory, the island’s monastery.
