Redbridge Council leader Jas Athwal has asked the government to urgently increase its support for India as Covid-19 cases surge in the country.

Cllr Athwal wrote to prime minister Boris Johnson and said that while the government has taken steps to send medical equipment and ventilators to India, much more needs to be done.

He told the Recorder: "Due to a shortage of oxygen, medical equipment and PPE, there is a real risk that the health service in India will be overwhelmed.

"This is not happening in some distant land but in a country with which the UK has a great affinity, affection and familial connection to.

"This is especially true in Redbridge where many of our neighbours are of Indian descent, including myself."

Indians make up the 2nd largest ethnic group in Redbridge (16 per cent), according to the latest Census figures.

Cllr Athwal said: "Our residents are keen to travel more freely to see family, friends and their businesses in India and elsewhere.

"Some are having travel to keep their enterprise – and all who depend on them – alive.

"Covid-19 raging in India and elsewhere puts everyone in harms way."

Cllr Athwal said the UK has a moral obligation to help India, particularly as it is a Commonwealth country.

In the letter he wrote: "We have an opportunity to support India from a place of relative security, to do the right thing and save the lives of people half a world away.

"Not only is it our moral obligation to do all we can to help India at its greatest time of need, it is also the responsible action to take to the prevent the spread of the virus both around the world and the UK."

He also said a lack of action would put the effectiveness of the UK's vaccination programme at risk if mutated forms of the virus were allowed to develop which current vaccines could be less effective against.

There are currently eight wards across Redbridge which are conducting enhanced surge testing after two cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 was found.

The prime minister's office did not respond to a request for comment.