AT times like these one can almost feel sympathy for our Worcestershire Conservative MPs.

First the Whip’s Office, under the direction of this incompetent and untrustworthy Government, have forced them repeatedly to vote for many things which, one assumes, go against both their better judgement and their personal integrity.

This includes supporting pollution of our rivers with raw sewage; failing to retain the £20 a week uplift in Universal Credit despite soaring inflation; the manifestly unfair approach to social care costs which hits less affluent families hardest; and the disgraceful attempt to change the rules on lobbying to protect Owen Paterson.

To compound the problem, some of these policies were then rapidly reversed after public outcries, leaving these poor, loyal MPs looking foolish!

Now we have the many serious revelations about the way those at the heart of Government, including the Prime Minister, flouted the Covid rules with which the rest of us sought to comply.

Their smugly entitled frivolity on numerous occasions during lockdowns was deeply offensive to those who suffered in all kinds of ways during the pandemic, while trying to keep to the rules for the good of their community.

Meanwhile our local Conservative MPs remain silent on this issue, unlike some of their braver colleagues.

We now call on them to publicly condemn such behaviour and the dishonesty shown in repeatedly trying to deny or cover up what happened.

That way they might rescue a degree of self-respect and some vestige of public support, rather than again toeing the party line, even if it be at the cost of advancement in this discredited Government.

Dr Peter Daw

Mid-Worcestershire Labour Party