TWENTY people died waiting for an ambulance over the Christmas period while a “critically overstretched” trust failed to decide whether to declare a state of emergency, Labour MP Clive Lewis revealed today.

Using parliamentary privilege in the Commons chamber, the Norwich South MP said one of his constituents had blown the whistle on the East of England Ambulance Service trust.

He said: “It has been put to me that the service became critically overstretched due to high demand on December 19, and at that point senior operational managers wanted to move to Reap 4, the highest state of emergency, and seek mutual aid, most likely from the armed forces.