Now 70% of England is in Tier 3
Tory MPs’ fury after Home Counties hit by harshest rules... and just 3 places see shackles loosened
THE home counties were plunged into Tier Three yesterday, meaning two thirds of the country will be under the strictest coronavirus rules from tomorrow.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that pubs, restaurants and cinemas close will have to close across large swathes of southern England following a rise in infections.
Announcing the results of the first review of the postNovember lockdown system, a string of areas moved up a tier, but just three moved down. It means 38 million people, including the Queen, will be living in Tier Three from tomorrow – 68 per cent of the population.
Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey with the exception of Waverley, Hastings and Rother on the Kent border of East Sussex, and Portsmouth, Gosport and Havant in Hampshire all moved into Tier Three.
Bristol and North Somerset moved from Tier Three to Two, while Herefordshire was moved into Tier One.
Mr Hancock told the Commons that the UK had ‘come so far’ and ‘mustn’t blow it now’ ahead of the relaxation of measures for five days over the Christmas period. But Tory MPs reacted with fury, questioning why their areas hadn’t moved down a tier when rates in their area were falling.
Rob Butler, the Conservative MP for Aylesbury, said the news that Buckinghamshire was going into Tier Three heralded ‘the bleakest of midwinters’, especially for hospitality businesses.
Attempting to justify the tougher measures, Mr Hancock said case rates in the South East of England were up 46 per cent in the last week while hospital admissions were up by more than a third.
In the East of England cases were up twothirds and hospital admissions up by nearly half in the past week, he added. The formal review comes after ministers were forced to move London and parts of Hertfordshire and Essex into the highest tier last week after infection rates rose dramatically.
Mr Hancock said: ‘I know that Tier Three measures are tough. But the best way for everyone to get out of them is to pull together, not just to follow the rules but do everything they possibly can to stop the spread of the virus.’
But Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers and a Greater Manchester MP, questioned what more the region could do to get out of Tier Three. ‘The statement will be greeted with dismay in Greater Manchester where we have had severe restrictions for nine months, where in nine of the ten boroughs rates are below the national average,’ he said.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said he was ‘not surprised but very disappointed’.
Stevenage Tory MP Stephen McPartland said it was ‘ridiculous that we are being dragged into Tier Three’ and ‘totally unacceptable’. Tory MP Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of lockdownsceptic Conservatives, said he was ‘disappointed’ that his Wycombe constituency was being moved into Tier Three.
‘The Government must urgently clarify what the criteria are for moving areas between, and especially down, the tiers,’ he added.
Jason McCartney, Tory MP for Colne Valley, said he had believed the area had a ‘strong case’ for being brought down into Tier Two. He asked Mr Hancock: ‘What more do my constituents need to do to come out of Tier Three?’
Buckinghamshire Tory MP Greg Smith said moving the area into Tier Three was not ‘reasonable or proportionate’ and there will be a ‘heavy toll on businesses’.
He told Times Radio: ‘I can’t look any of my constituents in the eye and say Tier Three restrictions are reasonable or proportionate to the place we find ourselves with Covid19.’ But Herefordshire’s acting director of public health, Rebecca HowellJones, raised concerns about the county’s move down to Tier One, warning of a ‘yoyoing’ between tiers.
‘From a public health perspective, I would have to say no, we are disappointed by this news,’ she told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
‘The relaxation of the rules now, just ahead of the Christmas mixing and the further relaxation that is inevitably going to result in more infections... it feels like it is too soon.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was concerned the tier system was ‘just not strong enough to control the virus’.