Guildford Labour Party, along with many others in Guildford, are deeply disappointed that our MP, Angela Richardson, has rushed to defend the Prime Minister’s adviser Dominic Cummings. Her defence was so quickly formulated she clearly didn’t have any time to actually find out the facts of the case for herself; she has simply opted to show her support for the Conservative Party regardless of the circumstances.

Out in the real world, people are genuinely upset, even outraged and bewildered by these developments. We all understand that Cummings had some difficult decisions to make, but he was not alone. One local resident has contacted us saying: “My Wife and I have an 18 month old daughter. For the first 4 weeks of the lockdown I was working 7 days/week averaging 15hrs a day designing key components as part of the VentilatorChallengeUk consortium. During this time my Wife was going through the early phase of pregnancy and suffering with debilitating pregnancy sickness which rendered her bed bound for at least a week. During this entire time my under-65 parents, 70 miles away, were perfectly capable and willing to look after our daughter. However, the strong and clear message from the government was we must stay at home. This made for the hardest 4 weeks of my family’s life, but we got through it for the good of the rest of the country at such a tough time.”

I have seen heartrending stories from people who have lost parents and other relatives, but been unable to travel to funerals or to visit desperately grieving relatives and siblings all of whom have followed the government advice. Our correspondent above feels “angry, frustrated and disappointed” as do thousands of others who  these hard choices. We accept that Cummings had a hard choice to make; but he made the wrong one and if the Prime Minister still expects the British people to take any notice of his advice, he needs to act now and dismiss his adviser. To do anything else is an insult to all those who have made huge sacrifices for the nation.

As for Ms Richardson, I would suggest that after a period of reflection she might like to offer sympathy and support for her constituents who made the right choices in equally, or even more difficult circumstances.

Brian Creese