Sutton Council was forced to postpone a meeting at the last minute due to councillors coming down with Covid-19.

It sparked a debate on social media about whether meetings should be able to be held online.

The in-person full council meeting was due to take place on Monday night at Sutton Central Library.

But four hours before it was set to start, Sutton Council tweeted: “Tonight’s Council meeting will be adjourned and the business considered next week on Monday, July 18 at 7pm.

In a tweet, shared more than 1,600 times, Lib Dem councillor for The Wrythe, Bobby Dean, called the situation “nonsensical and unsafe”.

He said: “So we’ve just had to postpone our full council meeting tonight because of a spike of Covid cases among councillors.

"We could not move it online because Jacob Rees Mogg insists by law we do it in person.

"This is nonsensical and unsafe.

"We must have the online option.”

In May 2021, legislation to allow council meetings to take place remotely was not extended.

At the time, Cllr James Jamieson, Chairman of the Local Government Association, said the decision was “extremely disappointing”.

Former Croydon councillor, Andrew Pelling waded in on the issue too. He posted: “The postponement of this evening’s Sutton council meeting because of Covid underlines how widespread Covid is in south London.

"Still Croydon politicians boast on social media that they are going door to door canvassing.

"There are other Covid mitigated ways of contacting voters.”