This week’s polling of Bolton residents who voted Conservative for the first time at the 2019 General Election has made for illuminating reading.

Polling company JL Partners found Boltonians think Boris Johnson is “a buffoon”, “a coward”, and can’t be trusted.

And with recent goings-on in Westminster that will come as surprise to nobody. We’ve made so many sacrifices to contain this awful pandemic these last few years, yet senior government ministers were gallivanting around Whitehall drinking alcohol and partying without a care in the world.

Tory MPs will tell you that the Prime Minister is focused on the task in hand and therefore they’re not calling for his resignation. But more than two years after the last General Election, Tory promises to level-up the country remain empty words, with Bolton more deprived now that in was in 2010 according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Bolton’s two Tory MPs Chris Green and Mark Logan refuse to call for the Prime Minister’s resignation. But Boltonians aren’t fooled by this inept Prime Minister and his callous government.

Only Labour under Keir Starmer offers the government this country so urgently needs. A serious Prime Minister-in-waiting ready to tackle head-on the many injustices we know need to be addressed.

Phil Brickell