The lockdown-busting events in Downing Street can no longer be kicked into the long grass. We now have the report from leading civil servant Sue Gray, which lays bare the shocking rule and law breaking that was going on at the heart of government, which was awash with booze when the rest of us were following the rules.

The report is damning, it lays the blame squarely on the Prime Minister for creating such an environment of industrial-scale law breaking. A culture where they decided the law didn’t apply to them. Once woken from their slumber, even the Metropolitan Police ended up fining the Prime Minister and the Chancellor for their law breaking.

Throughout this fiasco, Watford’s MP Dean Russell has been content to kick one of the many empty beer cans down the road. Instead of standing up for the rule of law and his constituents who had followed the rules, he constantly sided with the law-breaking Prime Minister. He gave Boris Johnson the benefit of the doubt. Now there is no doubt.

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Many of us know people who lost loved ones during the Covid pandemic. We were unable to meet, hug or be with them in their time of need. While we made conciliatory cups of tea, they opened bottle after bottle of booze, spirited in in suitcases and chilled in the wine fridge. If Dean Russell cannot see anything wrong with that, he is not fit to be MP for Watford.

Mr Russell can no longer ignore what has gone on. He must do his duty, call time on the Prime Minister and demand his resignation.

  • Cllr Nigel Bell is leader of Watford Borough Council's Labour group