On the second anniversary of a key moment at the start of the pandemic for Oxfordshire, Witney MP Robert Courts faced a call to resign over his support for the PM for allegedly breaking lockdown rules.

Sue Gray's report, published on Monday, revealed there were 16 events held in Downing Street or the Cabinet Office between May 2020 and April 2021, 12 of those are now being investigated by the Met police.

The 12 include the drinks in the Downing Street garden attended by the PM on 20 May 2020, a birthday celebration for Mr Johnson in the Cabinet Room on 19 June 2020 and a gathering in the No 10 flat on 13 November 2020.

On January 31 2020 a flight landed at RAF Brize Norton carrying 83 British people and 27 foreign nationals evacuated from Wuhan - the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

Ambulances waited on the runway, and passengers disembarked wearing masks to be taken to a quarantine hospital on the Wirral.

Two people had tested positive for the virus in England that morning and fear was such that roads around the air base – Station Road, Manor Road and Carterton Road – were closed for public safety until 6pm.

On Tuesday a constituent called Michael rang BBC Radio Oxford and told Mr Courts he, and any Tory MP who supported the PM, should resign.

Mr Courts, who had been played audio clips expressing some opinions from the streets of Witney, replied: "You heard from the audio clips, views are very strong. They are also very mixed about this and I understand that strength of feeling that Michael has. But as we heard from your clips there are others who would disagree."

Among the clips, one man described the affair as "a big fiasco from start to finish and it's still continuing", another said it was "poorly handled". A third said that, as a nurse, she was "not impressed".

"I don't know what they can do now but sorry is definitely not enough," she said.

Another former Conservative voter said "Absolutely he should resign. I do not think we have heard everything that's been going on, it's the tip of the iceberg."

Geoff, the landlord of the Wheatsheaf in Faringdon, said he had received visits from the police and Covid marshalls saying that some of his tables were three inches too together and if he didn't obey the rules he could face a £10,000 fine or loss of licence.

One Witney resident blamed the press for whipping up the story out of proportion "considering everything else going on". Another said the Met Police report needs to be considered.

In the interview, Mr Courts said the Sue Gray report was "open and fair", and made no personal criticism of the prime minister but only the structures and organisation around Downing Street which the PM had confirmed he would fix.

Boris Johnson proposes an Office of the Prime Minister with a permanent secretary to lead it and changes to the way the civil service operates in No 10.

Mr Courts said: "I think it is important that we do step back and look at what number 10 is. I mean, yes there's a prime minister's flat there. Yes, it's an accommodation place, it is also an office. It is more like a small department because there's something like 400 people there working at any one time so it's important to take a step back and realise what sort of place that actually is. So that's what the report says. It appears there were some institutional matters that need fixing. The prime minister accepted those in full, unreservedly. He apologised unreservedly."

Later Mr Courts confirmed to the Witney Gazette that he backs the PM.

He said: "I welcome that the Prime Minister has accepted the findings of the Sue Gray report, apologised for mistakes made in Number 10, and committed to implementing Sue Gray's recommendations in full. 

"The Prime Minister has done an extraordinary job to lead our country through the pandemic, delivering the best vaccine rollout and testing regime in Europe while our economic recovery is the best in the G7. He has my full support."