WESTMINSTER was in recess but again provided the main stories and for all the wrong reasons.

Despite a cost of living crisis and a humanitarian tragedy in Europe, the disgraceful actions of the Prime Minister and his acolytes still overshadowed them.

Many constituents have been in touch. They abided by the rules during lockdown, often at great personal cost. Tales of loved relatives dying alone are distressing to read, let alone having to endure. But they did and for the collective good.

Now they read about a Prime Minister who flagrantly ignored the rules he set for the rest of us. But it’s one law for them and another for the rest of us. Not just with Covid. We have to pay our tax, and rightly so, as it’s needed for public services in which we all share. But they and their families can duck and dive or choose a tax status to avoid or minimise what they owe.

Compounding all that is the shameless lying. Johnson was adamant that there had been no parties. Now he accepts a fixed penalty notice and agrees that there were. Many daft students faced higher fines or more serious charges for what seems lesser offences. That’s simply unacceptable.

He has to go. Parliamentary procedure requires the official opposition to move such a motion. They must do so and I will support them. Let the Tories rally round Johnson if they wish. But they’ll be exposed as craven charlatans.

Johnson must go but his replacement will be no better. We’ve never voted in a Tory Government since 1955 but they keep getting worse, Thatcher now looks a paragon of virtue. It again shows why independence is needed.

The decision to send desperate people seeking asylum to Rwanda confirms that. It’s not just legally and morally wrong but administratively failed when Australia tried it with a Pacific island. Johnson is a disgrace but he’s surrounded by people who have covered for him or whose actions or policies are equally odious.