- Professor Neil Ferguson’s mother in law has rushed to his defence and questioned if his trysts are a ‘big deal’
- Eileen Pirie said the Imperial College scientist has organised ‘our getting out of this huge and awful situation
- ‘Professor Lockdown’ had warned the UK could see 500,000 deaths if mass self-isolation did not occur
- His advice, through a report he helped produce at Imperial College, led to the PM bringing in the lockdown
- But since it started he allowed his married lover to travel across London to visit him at home at least twice
- Former Brexit Secretary David Davis warns that Britain ‘can no longer run our strategy on secret advice’
- It comes as Boris Johnson is set to ease lockdown from Monday, outlining what will happen this Sunday
- The scientist has quit his role on the secretive SAGE committee – but Imperial College is standing by him
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Professor Neil Ferguson’s mother-in-law has rushed to his defence, claiming that it is not a big deal that he allowed a woman into his home twice during the lockdown he has repeatedly advocated.
Eileen Pirie, 79, said the Imperial College scientist, who resigned from all government roles after his trysts became public, had been working long hours plotting Britain’s path through the pandemic.
And she defended his right to have a woman other than her daughter – Kim Polgreen – visiting him at his flat in London, saying that Prof Ferguson and his wife are ‘no longer close’.
Speaking outside her Oxford home, Mrs Pirie said: ‘I think it is absolutely disgraceful the things that are being said about him. All of this derision because he invited a woman into his flat?
‘Is this really such a big deal. I think we need to get things in perspective. Neil has organised, not single-handedly but to a great degree, our getting out of this huge and awful situation that we are all in.
‘He has taken so much of his own personal time over this. He never has any feeling of watching the clock. It doesn’t matter what the time is, he just works.
‘I just cannot understand how someone who has done so much good for this country can be vilified in this way.’
She said ordinarily the scientist splits his time between his city flat and the family home in Oxford. Since the start of the year, however, he has been cocooned in the capital working long hours and rarely seeing his family.
She added: ‘I guess he shouldn’t have done it, but he has had the virus and he has huge responsibilities and just a few friends. This is another of them and he invited her in. Is she a girlfriend? Maybe, I don’t know but what I do know is that he has been working his socks off for this country and this is how he is repaid.
