‘Extreme Covid rules unsuitable for a democracy’
OVERZEALOUS public health advice and a lack of Parliamentary scrutiny led to extreme pandemic measures that should never have been contemplated in a democracy, Sir Graham Brady believes.
The chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers said he thought the Government had handled aspects of the pandemic well, including the “standout” success of the vaccines and the furlough scheme.
But other elements had overstepped the mark, Sir Graham said, suggesting no administration should dictate “whether you can see your family or whether you can start a new relationship with somebody”.
“I’ve always taken the view that government is there to serve the people, not the other way around.”
The MP for Altrincham and Sale West said he found some measures – such as prohibiting outdoor sports – “incomprehensible”.
Sir Graham said he understood and supported many of the initial interventions, when the severity of the virus remained unknown.
But talking to the podcast Sketch Notes On, Sir Graham said he worried the absence of Parliamentary scrutiny – caused in part by Westminster not sitting in person through much of the early pandemic – meant that the measures had not been properly discussed. Sir Graham, who remained in Parliament when possible, said this had affected the tone of the argument. Decisions such as the extension of the first lockdown were taken by the Government alone, rather than after Commons debate.
He understood that fear of potential disaster would make the administration plan for the worstcase scenarios.
But he added: “Some of those powers were extreme, you know, the power to make it illegal for people to see their children or grandchildren, the decision to make it illegal at one point to leave the country, something for which there’s literally no public health argument. So, [it is] critically important that Parliament should be watching and prepared to flex its muscles at those times.”
Asked why he thought the decisions were made, he replied: “I think it was overzealous public health advice, I think the intention being to try to keep people in, not leaving their houses very much at all, and some of it was counter-productive.”
He said the prohibition on meeting families had hit his constituents particularly hard and had caused “a lot of people a lot of pain – a lot of psychological pain and suffering”.
A bird flu outbreak has hit a poultry farm in Lancashire. A temporary control zone has been declared around the affected site in Salwick, near Preston. Lancashire County Council, said: “The risk to public health from avian flu is
very low.”