Boris Johnson could face a backlash in Commons vote

PRIME Minister Boris Johnson will face a struggle to get a new toughened Covid-19 tier system through the House of Commons on Tuesday.

It is due to replace the current lockdown which ends on Wednesday and many North East MPs have serious concerns over what it will mean for the region and whether they should back it.

Some like Labour’s Kevan Jones who represents North Durham and Emma Lewell-Buck, who represents South Shields, have said they will vote against.

Mr Jones said: “I’m voting against because I have lost all faith in the Government’s handling of the crisis.”

He described the decision to put the North East into Tier 3 while London was in Tier 2 as “nonsense”. Mr Jones said it wasn’t a scientific decision but a “political decision”.

When the proposed new tier system was revealed last week, Ms Lewell-Buck said: “As it stands now I am likely to vote against it. I will look at all the information. These are difficult decisions and they shouldn’t

be made on the flip of the coin, but as it stands now I am very much planning to vote against it.

“What we are seeing now is this endless cycle of lockdowns and tier systems, and it’s very clear they are not working.”

Others, like Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery, Newcastle North MP Chi Onwurah and Ian Mearns who represents Gateshead, are undecided and want to hear the scientific reasons for it and what support Mr Johnson will offer to local businesses.

Mr Lavery said: “l’ll be waiting to see what the motion says and how it reads. The devil is always in the detail.

“This is a very important vote either way. It would be an advantage to be able to read the scientific evidence on which the Government has made its decisions.

“People in the North are rightly confused as to why regions in the South are in Tier 2 with higher transmission rates than most of our region. I’m being inundated with questions on the issue of the North South divide.”