The No.10 statement doesn't (and can't) deny that Cummings just decided he'd ignore the official guidance that No.10 was telling everyone else to follow. To defend Cummings' decision, as the statement does, is to argue it's ok for him to follow different rules than you and I.
Interestingly that statement still leaves room for Cummings to be jettisoned. The No10 spokesman says not that he (the spokesman) but rather Cummings himself "believes he behaved reasonably and legally." 
I don't see a sensible argument that Cummings broke the law. The definition of reasonable excuse only "includes" the examples that follow and Cummings' actions (if taken at face value) are very near to r.6(2)(m).
But he clearly ignored the guidance legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/350/….
But he clearly ignored the guidance legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/350/….
I do not like Cummings - he has behaved pretty despicably towards me personally and I sometimes wish I had taken the advice of the senior libel lawyer who urged me to sue him - but my duty properly to represent the law is pretty clear.
