Junior minister Douglas Ross has resigned after Dominic Cummings’ defence of his trip to County Durham during the coronavirus lockdown.
The Scotland Office minister said the senior aide’s view of the government guidance was “not shared by the vast majority of people”.
No 10 said the prime minister regretted Mr Ross’ decision to stand down.
It comes as 30 Tory MPs have joined those calling on Mr Cummings to resign.
Mr Cummings explained on Monday why he drove 260 miles in March from his London home to his parents’ farm with his child and ill wife.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Mr Ross, who remains Conservative MP for Moray, said: “While the intentions may have been well meaning, the reaction to this news shows that Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked.”
“I have constituents who didn’t get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn’t visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government.
“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.”
A No 10 spokesman said: “The prime minister would like to thank Douglas Ross for his service to government and regrets his decision to stand down as parliamentary under secretary of state for Scotland.”
Labour’s shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said Mr Ross had done the “decent thing” by resigning.
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said he respected Mr Ross for taking the “difficult decision” and called for Mr Cummings to be removed from his post “without further delay”.
Opposition MPs are meeting to discuss their next steps in deciding how to hold Boris Johnson and his senior aide to account.
At a news conference in the garden of 10 Downing Street on Monday afternoon, Mr Cummings said he did not regret his actions. and believed he acted reasonably and legally.
On the subject of why he then drove his family to the town of Barnard Castle – 15 days after he had displayed symptoms – Mr Cummings said he was testing his eyesight to see if he could make the trip back down to London. He explained that he had experienced some eyesight problems during his illness.
The drip drip of Conservative MPs calling on Dominic Cummings to go has continued on Tuesday.
Now hovering around 30, it is worth saying that this amounts to around 8% of the parliamentary party.
However, what’s notable is that there are those who, even if they’re not calling on Mr Cummings to go, have felt it necessary to write long open letters explaining their thinking to constituents.
Public anger, it seems, has not been put to bed by Monday’s extraordinary rose garden press conference.
The prime minister’s chief aide does, of course, have his backers; people who believe he did what was right in difficult circumstances.
And one government minister suggested to me that the story has been “whipped up” by those who simply do not like Mr Cummings, either politically or as a person.
But this saga is now into its fourth day, in a week when the prime minister wishes to communicate crucial messages about his plans for easing the lockdown.
It is – another minister conceded – a “problem” and “distraction”.
And on Tuesday, as yesterday, the question remains, how much political capital is Boris Johnson ready to expend on keeping his chief aide?
Boris Johnson’s spokesman reiterated Downing Street’s support for Mr Cummings on Tuesday, saying the adviser had “answered questions extensively”.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove told the BBC Mr Cummings’ account of his actions was “exhaustive, detailed and verifiable” and “people will make their own mind up”.
Asked about the easing of lockdown measures, he added that the government is “looking at how we can ensure that more people can see each other outside in a safe way”.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was time for the government to “move on and continue to address the things that are most important in tackling the next phase of the virus”.
Among those calling on Mr Cummings to resign is Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw, who told the BBC the row is distracting from efforts to tackle the coronavirus.
William Wragg, Conservative MP for Hazel Grove, said it was “humiliating and degrading” to see ministers defending Mr Cummings.
Veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale told the BBC the adviser had “sent out a very damaging and dangerous message” to the public.
And Mark Harper, a former Conservative chief whip, said he was “disappointed” that Mr Cummings had neither apologised nor expressed “regret” over the trip to Barnard Castle.
The row overshadowed Mr Johnson’s announcement on Monday that all non-essential shops in England will be allowed to reopen from 15 June provided they meet new social distancing and hygiene measures.
They follow outdoor markets and car showrooms, which will be allowed to reopen from 1 June.
But with online shopping booming during the lockdown, there are questions over whether customers will return.
Latest government figures show the number of people to die with coronavirus in the UK rose by 121 to 36,914 on Monday.
In other developments:
Senior bishops have reported receiving death threats after criticising Mr Cummings’ actions
A drug treatment that appears to shorten recovery time for people with coronavirus is being made available on the NHS
The Scottish government’s new “test and protect” strategy will go live on Thursday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed
The pandemic has given the government an “extraordinary opportunity” to offer rough sleepers long-term help to get off the streets, the head of its homeless coronavirus taskforce has said
Ireland’s chief medical officer says the Republic has “suppressed Covid-19 as a country”, as no new deaths were reported in the past day
Holding the Cheltenham Festival and Liverpool’s Champions League match against Atletico Madrid in March “caused increased suffering and death”, the scientist leading the UK’s largest Covid-19 tracking project has said
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Source: BBC
