Jamieson told BBC Radio 4 that people were telling officers that “if it is okay for Cummings, it is okay for us” and “it looks like there is one rule for us and another rule for the people in No 10 Downing Street.
“Now you can’t … if the rules are flexible, and people seem to have interpreted them who are at the heart of government, then it is almost impossible then for police officers to be able to carry out their job effectively.
“What the police are now saying to me is they are getting quite a pushback, not just from some of the younger people who previously were saying why can’t I play football, why can’t I go out in the streets? They’re getting pushbacks from other generations of people as well,” Jamieson said.
“Now that is a bad sign, showing that confidence in the rules, confidence in government and thereby the police’s ability to enforce it has been undermined very much in the last few days.”
Cummings he said he believed it was “the best thing to do” so that extended family could care for his four-year-old son if he and his wife, who were infected with the coronavirus, both fell seriously ill.
His trip came after the government imposed a strict “stay home” order, and Cummings is being accused of flouting the rules he helped impose on the rest of the country.
Cummings insisted that “the rules … allowed me to exercise my judgment”.
He said “I don’t regret what I did,” though he acknowledged that “reasonable people” might disagree with his actions.
