‘HEROIC EFFORT’
PM hails Leicester response - but now get strapped in for a few more months
BORIS Johnson yesterday hailed the “heroic” efforts of people in Leicester in putting up with an extended lockdown over the past three months - as he announced more stringent measures across England.
The Prime Minister warned new coronavirus restrictions could last six months, with office staff told to work from home again, the wider use of face masks and a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants.
With numbers on the rise again in both the city and county, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned whether local lockdowns really worked.
But Mr Johnson said: “What happened in Leicester was a heroic effort by local people to drive the virus down.
“That’s the response we hope to encourage across the country and that is certainly part of our strategy.”
BORIS Johnson has hailed the “heroic” efforts of people in Leicester in combating coronavirus after three months of local lockdown in the city – as the entire country prepares for more stringent Covid regulations.
The Prime Minister used the example of the city, the first in the UK to go into local lockdown at the end of June, yesterday afternoon while setting out a series of tighter restrictions intended to hold back a second wave of Covid19.
However, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, pictured, pointed out that after weeks of extra restrictions in the city – which included initially essential travel only rules and the closing of non-essential retail – the rates of infection remain high.
Sir Keir said: “Leicester has had restrictions for about three months and yet the infections there remain high.”
Boris Johnson responded and said: “What happened in Leicester was a heroic effort by local people to drive the virus down. That’s the response we hope to encourage across the country and that is certainly part of our strategy.”
The Prime Minister had just told the House of new rules that he hopes will drive rates down and avoid the need for another national lockdown.
Mr Johnson warned of a tougher regime for at least six months with harsher penalties for those who do not obey the rules, telling MPs: “No British government would wish to stifle our freedoms in the ways that we have found necessary this year.
“Yet even now we can draw some comfort from the fact schools, universities, and places of worship are staying open, shops can serve their customers, construction workers can go to building sites and the vast majority of the UK economy can continue moving forwards.
“We’re also better prepared for a second wave with ventilators and PPE, the dexamethasone, the Nightingale hospitals and 100 times as much testing as we began this epidemic with.”
He added: “So it now falls to each of us and every one of us to remember the basics – wash our hands, cover our faces, observe social distancing and follow the rules.
“Then we can fight back against this virus, shelter our economy from even greater damage, protect the most vulnerable in care homes and hospitals, safeguard our NHS and save many more lives.”
Sir Keir said it was “right” Mr Johnson was announcing further measures, adding: “We support those measures.”
City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “It is very flattering for the Prime Minister to use the term heroic but people in Leicester, like me, have been very frustrated by the chaotic and often unhelpful way the government has dealt with the city.
“Keir Starmer is entirely right to make the point that, even after weeks of government-imposed measures, the rates in the city remain high. “Where we have had some success is in what we have done locally to suppress the virus and not because of the rules imposed on us from above.
“We have applied our own actions based on on our own understanding of how the virus has been spreading. I think it is clear that the lockdown imposed on us was a very crude tool.”
Keir Starmer is right that, even after weeks of government measures, the rates in the city remain high
City mayor