For an insight into why Dominic Cummings hasn't met the same fate as previous government officials caught short breaching Covid legislation, one need only look at his codependent relationship with Boris Johnson.
As the architect of the leave campaign Cummings was seen as a Machiavellian character, not afraid to bend, twist and at times set fire to the rules of political engagement.
His strength was always in being that slightly odd character in the backroom, plotting, planning, strategising and spinning for the public facing men in suits.
His uncomfortable demeanour at Monday's press conference in the rose garden of Downing Street, showed a man better used to being quoted as a senior source than answering questions about himself.
It was obvious that as someone who has enjoyed the trappings of privilege throughout his life, being questioned about his behaviour by the mere mortals of the media was not a space Cummings wanted to be in.
More used to manipulating sections of the political press for his own aims, this was a situation no good spin doctor should even find themselves.
Leak the story, suppress the story, but never under any circumstances be the story.
Just a few years ago any suggestion that Boris Johnson would be Prime Minister would have been scoffed at by those in Westminster who knew him best.
He was seen as an MP who lived the kind of colourful private life that made him unsuitable for high office.
Cummings changed that, one by one helping eliminate rivals from the race for leadership, delivering Johnson with an historic majority which helped him deliver Brexit.
'Get Brexit Done' was such a big part of Cummings ambitions that last year during negotiations over the border he is reported to have said "I don't care if Northern Ireland falls into the f**king sea".
There are those who will continue to demand the head of Dominic Cummings on a plate for his now well publicised trip to Durham during lockdown.
But those who demand his resignation fail to understand the codependent nature of the relationship between the Prime Minister and his chief advisor.
They rely equally on each other for survival, and that is a partnership built on previous political manoeuvres that neither would want made public.
As a chief advisor he is a accountable to one man, and it is unlikely Boris Johnson is going to want to release Dominic Cummings, with all his secrets, into the wild outside of Westminster any time soon.
