HITCHIN: Our town's MP has reacted to Partygate by saying he is 'extremely disappointed'.

Bim Afolami spoke to Nub News to give his take on Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak both being fined for breaking Covid lockdown regulations by attending a gathering in Downing Street.

An investigation by the Metropolitan Police into illegal parties led to at least 50 fines being issued - including the two most senior politicians in the country. The prime minister's wife Carrie has also paid a fine.

Downing Street confirmed that Johnson was being fined for his birthday celebration on June 19, 2020.

Hitchin's Parliamentarian, Mr Afolami said: "I am extremely disappointed by what happened with the parties at Downing Street during the Covid lockdown period, as many of my constituents are. How could anyone not be? 

"I have spoken to the Prime Minister about them and conveyed my disappointment to him very directly. It is clear that those who set the rules should have followed them."

Johnson, thought to be the first sitting prime minister to be criminally sanctioned but it is expected he will call for a renewed focus on the Ukraine war, and the government's controversial policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as he speaks to the Commons later today, Wednesday (April 19). 

"However, the question is whether right now is the right time to be talking about the future of the Prime Minister and Chancellor?" explained Mr Afolami, adding:  "I do not believe that it is. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, severely impacting on energy prices and wider inflation which is really impacting living standards, Britain needs strong leadership and the West needs to be united more than ever. "

"So what next? " asked the Hitchin MP.

"The Prime Minister and Chancellor should take their sanctions like any other citizen, with no complaints, and they and the wider Conservative Party needs to try and win back the trust we have lost as a result of this. I know that that trust will take a lot of rebuilding and that people are angry.

"I cannot say whether such an effort will be successful - but we owe it to the public to do all we can to rebuild that trust."