Southport Tory politicians have brought shame on our town, says veteran journalist Martin Hovden

Not one elected Tory representative in Southport has the courage or self-respect to say whether they support lockdown-breaking Boris Johnson after the vote of confidence earlier this week.

While families up and down the country, including Southport, are still grieving for lost ones during the Covid crisis our local Conservatives (MP Damien Moore and four councillors) refuse point blank to say whether they still support the PM, writes Martin Hovden.

Last Monday, Mr Johnson survived the vote by 211 votes to 148 and carries on for a least the next 12 months as PM.

The next day Mr Moore said the anger towards Boris Johnson is justified and the result of the confidence vote result “has helped to refocus the PM's mind on the big issues.” - but he did not say how he voted.

Almost a week later and our MP still refuses to reveal whether he has confidence in Mr Johnson.

Yesterday, I emailed Southport's four Conservative councillors and asked if they had confidence in their national leader.

Only one – Cllr Mike Morris – responded and tried to deflect the question by saying he wants to wait for the result of the investigation into the alleged rule-breaking beer and curry event in Durham, attended by Labour leader leader Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Raynor.

In case you didn't know, Cllr Morris, Boris Johnson has already been fined for breaking the law. And at the time of writing, no charges have been brought against Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy.

My comments have nothing to do with party politics. It's about our elected representatives of any party being caring human beings, who have the courage to speak out when something is so obviously wrong. It's about honesty, decency and transparency.

And from a democracy point of view, we cannot allow our politicians to pick and choose which questions to answer. Politicians are elected by the public and the public has every right to ask any question they want, especially when it concerns the disgraceful behaviour of the most important politician in the country.

Just remember, people died alone during the Covid lockdown; families were not allowed to see their elderly relatives; our NHS staff and frontline workers were at times overwhelmed but carried on and helped as many people as they could.

While the rest of the country was following lockdown rules, civil servants and political staff in Number 10 were holding parties. Some drank so much they were sick on the floor, others spilt wine on the walls. They even had a karaoke machine.

All under the watch of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who became the first PM in history to be fined for breaking the law.

And yet our local Tory politicians won't say whether they still have confidence in the man.

So I say to MP Damien Moore and Councillors Mike Prendergast (Dukes ward), Mike Morris (Cambridge), Tony Brough (Ainsdale), Sir Ron Watson (Dukes) – shame on you.