MP COLUMN: Diverting attention from the crimes and misdemeanours at Downing Street

The sordid detail about how the seat of government often doubled as a nightclub insults all those who obeyed the rules.

A Commons report may find that the Prime Minister lied to parliament and that is a red line for all democrats.

Maybe Johnson will survive but my guess is that his days are numbered – they should be – as Conservative MPs calculate that he obstructs a fifth election victory.

That’s a tall order and tainted by the weak character of the Prime Minister who sets the tone and is often tone deaf.

Even the sudden U-turn on a windfall tax, predicted here, is more about diverting attention from the crimes and misdemeanours at Downing Street.

But Labour has long argued for this and I welcome it as a start to helping people cope with the cost of living crisis.

The trouble with the soap opera is that many pressing issues take second place to the Prime Minister’s own hand to mouth quest to survive.

The respected writer, Andrew Marr says we don’t really have a government but “a general paralysis – a mush – a debilitating, exhausting shapelessness.”

Yet the country faces so many deep crises and scandals.

Marr details logjams in the justice system, polluted rivers, and “dental deserts” for many who cannot access NHS dentists. There are many others, as I see in my postbag and around North Tyneside.

Ideally, we need an early election. The second best option is that the Conservatives find a serious leader. Their pathetic soap opera has gone on for too long. We need to rescue our country from the mediocre elite in charge.