Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’s insistence in Yorkshire yesterday that voters’ concerns are focused chiefly on community issues as they go to the ballot box, in any case, feels hollow.

She sounds as if blissfully ignorant that a major mid-term vote of confidence in the Government has not landed amid uproar after the resignations of her party’s disgraced former Wakefield MP Imran Ahmad Khan, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy, and Neil Parish, the Tiverton and Honiton MP who has stepped down after admitting he watched pornography in the House of Commons.

The latter example is one signalling the deeply entrenched misogyny that Westminster needs to tackle head on at a time when 56 MPs from various parties face investigation by the Parliamentary watchdog over accusations of sexual misconduct.

Separately, there is Chancellor and MP for North Yorkshire’s Richmond, Rishi Sunak, who is conspicuous by his absence lately after revelations that his wife had “non-dom” tax status.

Ms Truss’ insistence that the electorate will not focus on this contradicts what our correspondents are hearing.

Columnist Andrew Vine today highlights how after speaking to a Conservative activist, “potholes and fly-tipping, the nitty gritty of local concerns, were not on people’s minds when he tried to persuade them to elect Tory councillors”.

Ultimately, though, it shouldn’t even be about electoral clout –the sleaze described above simply needs stopping because we must be able to expect more from those we have placed our faith in to serve.

Despite Liz Truss' claim, sleaze is focus of voter ire in local elections - The Yorkshire Post says