Despite the very best attempts by the government to sweep the Dominic Cummings affair under the carpet it promises to roll on.

If he had been caught at the time then the chances are that he would have received a fine or a warning from the police; there would have been a few front page headlines and then the whole thing would have gone away.

Instead the passage of time has added to the questions: how much did the prime minister know? why was there such a coverup? he really tested his eyes by driving with his family for 30 minutes?

The developing scandal has also given rise to, what I think, is a much grander constitutional issue. As the government manoeuvred into a full defence we had the Orwellian sight of senior ministers tweeting the same message in unison. That would be bad enough but one of those ministers was the attorney general, Suella Braverman, who tweeted:

Protecting one’s family is what any good parent does. The @10DowningStreet statement clarifies the situation and it is wholly inappropriate to politicise it. https://t.co/SdI5A1Dn2z

— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) May 23, 2020

The attorney general is supposed to be an independent legal adviser to the government and is also responsible for the Crown Prosecution Service. That role becomes completely meaningless when the police are in the process of launching an official investigation. How much faith can we have in the independence and integrity of Braverman when she is so prepared to exert political influence on an open legal matter on Twitter?

Previous attorneys general of this government, from Dominic Grieve to Geoffrey Cox, were all unique in their own way and none were by any means perfect but they all understood the importance of establishing a clear line between legal matters and party politics. When Suella Braverman blurs that line she threatens the rule of law and proves that Dom Cummings isn’t the only one that needs their vision testing.