Since April, the government has allowed the public to submit questions that are selected and put to the minister leading that day's news conference.

On Tuesday, a vicar named Martin from the seaside town of Brighton asked: "Will the government review all penalty fines imposed on families travelling for childcare purposes during lockdown?"

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"Coming from a man of the cloth I think that is perfectly reasonable to take away that question," Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

"I'll have to talk to my treasury colleagues before I can answer it in full and we'll look at it."

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Hancock insisted the public must "keep its resolve" with the lockdown but appeared testy during the daily briefing, which was dominated by questions about Johnson's divisive adviser.

Cummings was unrepentant during his one-hour news conference on Monday. His actions also included a family drive with his four-year-old son to a sightseeing spot - Barnard Castle - on the day of his wife's birthday.

The architect of the Vote Leave campaign claimed the drive was to test his eyesight ahead of the 400-kilometre journey back to London from county Durham, where he said he travelled to in case he needed childcare while both he and his wife were sick with the virus.

Johnson is backing his adviser saying he acted legally and was "following his instincts" but a YouGov polls shows 71 per cent of Britons think Cummings broke the rules.

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Labour's health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that the Prime Minister had "completely undermined vital public health regulations".

"If everyone had behaved like Mr Cummings the lockdown would have collapsed," Ashworth said.

"And the big danger now is that people won’t comply with tracing instructions when asked to isolate.

"It’s clear there is huge anger about this amongst the public who can see there is one rule for Boris Johnson’s friends and another for the rest of us."

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There is fury inside the Tory party too; junior minister Douglas Ross resigned from the government, saying he had waited to hear Cummings explanation before judging.

"I have constituents who didn't get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn't visit relatives because they followed the guidance of the government," the MP for Moray wrote.

"I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.

Scores of MPs, including former cabinet minister Jeremy Wright also demanded Cummings go.