LANCASHIRE’S crime commissioner has come under fire for ‘ill judged and reckless’ comments he posted on social media about the Government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

A group of Lancashire Conservative MPs, including Darwen and Rossendale’s Jake Berry, Hyndburn’s Sara Britcliffe and Burnley’s Antony Higginbotham, have hit out at the county’s police and crime commissioner, Clive Grunshaw, for a Facebook post in which he criticised the Government for implementing what he said was a ‘herd immunity’ policy for tackling Covid-19.

In the post on his personal Facebook account on April 17, Mr Grunshaw said the Government had chosen a ‘strategy allowing people to catch the disease and die. Callously accepting that this would kill many elderly and vulnerable people’.

He also called for mass testing to ‘trace and isolate the infection - until such time that a vaccine becomes available’, and said the ‘government started on the wrong path and have become lost and confused’.

In response, a selection of the county’s Tory MPs have asked Mr Grunshaw to apologise for his comments describing them as ‘plainly wrong, reckless and completely inappropriate for a person occupying a position of public trust’.

They said: “This is not a time for political point scoring and thinly veiled campaign activities.

“It is absolutely imperative that politicians of all parties put their differences aside and work together to ensure that our health service and our economy gets whatever support it needs to protect people in these difficult times.

“It is right that the Government is scrutinised on decisions that are currently being taken and we welcome the way in which opposition MPs in Parliament have worked alongside the government in a constructive manner.

"There is no such thing as a perfect crisis response and we recognise lessons are being learned as the United Kingdom tackles the most significant peacetime challenge it has ever faced.

“The comments from our local police and crime commissioner however, are completely unacceptable and inappropriate from a person holding a position of public trust.

“We urge Mr Grunshaw to focus on his day job rather than using the current crisis as a political football.”

Responding to the criticism, Mr Grunshaw said: “Firstly, no Conservative MP has contacted me regarding this issue. That is factually incorrect.

"They have merely run straight to the press with a statement as their aim is simply to intimidate and silence any opposition voice. They claim outrage by my personal comments, stating that I am using the current crisis as a “ political football” - they went to the press, I did not, I hope they can see the irony?

“I posted personal comments highlighting very real concerns about the Government’s strategy in dealing with this crisis.

"Let’s be clear, we do not have a government of national unity, we have decisions made by a select few people. At the time of my post we also had no sittings in Parliament and no effective opportunity for scrutiny

"Now Parliament has returned that will hopefully change."