East Cambs Lib Dem councillors voted tonight to thank residents for how they had behaved in lockdown. But Conservative councillors removed comments expressing local people’s disappointment at the Downing Street parties now being investigated by police.

Cllr Mark Inskip (Sutton) proposed the motion at the Full Council meeting. He contrasted the lockdown parties in No 10 with the quiet dignity of HM The Queen at the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, and how local residents had obeyed the rules.

The motion said the Council “thanks East Cambridgeshire residents for their efforts in respecting and abiding by COVID-19 rules since March 2020, particularly during periods of lockdown, and notes the excellent community spirit demonstrated by volunteers helping those most in need”.

The words Conservative councillors voted to delete were:

“Council shares the severe disappointment of many East Cambridgeshire residents that this leadership and responsibility has not been demonstrated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. While residents of the district obeyed the lockdown rules, often at huge personal cost, missing funerals, cancelling weddings and saying goodbye to dying loved ones on video calls, the Prime Minister was acting as if the rules did not apply to him.”

I said “To not only tolerate, but to endorse the actions of the Prime Minister and his acolytes by excising these words from the motion, is a deliberate slap in the face by this administration to everyone who endured so much.”