dereliction

On Tuesday, Williamson rejected Sir Jon's accusation that the lack of planning represented a "dereliction of duty", but conceded that "the depth of the challenge we were facing hadn't been properly grasped".

“Democrats have abandoned their offices by fleeing Texas, and a failure to respond to a call of the House constitutes a dereliction of their duty as elected officials,” Paxton said in a statement.

It also accused staff at the Tianshui No. 2 People's Hospital of "serious dereliction of duty" and described the institution's management of the case as "chaotic".

He added that Pegg was "impossibly vulnerable to Saunderson'" once she started in her "dereliction of duty" because she "knew he could destroy your career".

"It would be a dereliction of duty for the Labour party to win a landslide on difficult things and then go, 'do you know what, it's too difficult'."