UK PM Johnson's aide Cummings says should have explained trip earlier

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's close aide Dominic Cummings on Monday said he should have explained the circumstances of a 250 mile journey during lockdown earlier but that his decision to take the trip had not been a mistake.

"In retrospect, it would have been better to set this out earlier on," Cummings said after giving his account of the circumstances of the trip, adding that he believed he had acted reasonably even if other people would not have done the same.

"I've made mistakes in dealing with (COVID-19) going way back to January... I don't think that what I did in these 14 days was a mistake. I've certainly made a lot of other mistakes, I make mistakes every day."

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Elizabeth Piper; writing by Alistair Smout, Editing by Paul Sandle)