Coronavirus lockdown measures could be undermined by Dominic Cummings' trip to Durham, Wales' health secretary has warned.
Vaughan Gething has expressed concerns that people may be less likely to follow the rules after Boris Johnson's chief aide travelled to the north east from London during the lockdown.
Mr Cummings held a press conference on Monday afternoon where he defended his actions and resisted calls to resign.
He said he made the trip because of fears over a lack of childcare if he became incapacitated with the virus, and concerns about his family's safety.
He said a second trip to Barnard Castle was to check his eyesight before travelling back to London.
In an interview with BBC Radio Wales this morning, Mr Gething said that he believes if he himself had acted in a similar manner, he would not have lasted another day in office.
He said that he sympathised with Mr Cummings "on a human level", but said he also sympathised with people across the country who had made difficult decisions during lockdown.
He said: "I can look anybody in the eye and say my family followed the rules.
"I would have liked to have seen people, I would have liked to have travelled further but I haven't and other people haven't.
"Other people have cared for sick children as well and it never got to the point where he wasn't able to cope.
"I think unfortunately yesterday's conference has given the story more legs rather than shut it down."
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On the defence of Mr Cummings from Conservative Ministers, Mr Gething said there was a "fair amount of hypocrisy in the air" when they had criticised others previously for breaching rules.
Mr Gething would not be drawn into whether he thought Mr Cummings should resign, and said his main focus was on ensuring people continued to abide by the lockdown.
He said: "The level of trust we need the public to have is still really a really high level.
"We still need people to understand the measures we are giving.
"That's the most difficult thing. There are lots of people saying 'if rules don't apply I can follow my instincts, I will stop doing a lot of things we have agreed to'.
"We can see the argument people could have."
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He said it was important that people continued to follow the lockdown rules in Wales.
Mr Gething was himself previously accused by a national newspaper of flouting the rules in Wales after he was photographed eating on a picnic bench with his family, but strongly refuted the allegation.
At the time, he said: "I went out for a walk with my family, as many of us have done over the weekend. My son was on his scooter and we went local to ourselves. It's a walk we do from time to time.
"We stopped for food on the way. All of those things are within the regulations, so there is absolutely no breach of the guidance or the rules themselves.
"It is really disappointing...to have a deliberately unhelpful enquiry from a journalist from a national newspaper who wants to suggest that I have done something wrong when I plainly haven't."
On how lockdown changes might be made next week, Mr Gething said that they would remain "cautious" at the moment, but were looking at a number of options.
An announcement on any changes is set to be made towards the end of this week.
