Tory rebellion in the air over ‘farcical’ measures
TO BORROW from Boris Johnson’s beloved cod Latin dictionary, the Prime Minister must have hoped the end of England’s lockdown would also bring an end to his “mense horribilis”.
Alas for Mr Johnson his terrible month – in which he lost his most trusted aides – actually got worse yesterday. The lifting of the national lockdown paved its way for a blistering row that now threatens to tear apart his support inside the Conservative Party and across the country. From Tory shires to Red Wall seats, there was the stench of a full-blown rebellion in the air. Mr Johnson may yearn for a return to selfisolation.
Harriet Baldwin, a former minister and member of the Covid-19 recovery group, led the charge. She had done the maths and worked out that 23 million people, i ncluding her own West Worcestershire constituents, who before the lockdown were in a more relaxed Tier 1, will wake up on Dec 2 in Tier 2, ruling out any pre- Christmas household mixing indoors. Following yesterday’s announcement, fewer than 712,000 people – the citizens of Cornwall, the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly – will enjoy Tier 1 status, equivalent to just 1.3 per cent of England’s population. Prior to lockdown, 41.3 per cent were in Tier 1, indulging in such simple pleasures as going to the pub with friends for a pint.
From Dec 2, 31.67 million people (56.8 per cent) will live in a Tier 2 region, while the numbers plunged into the even stricter regime of Tier 3 will leap from 8.9 million ( 15.6 per cent) to 23.4 million (41.9 per cent). It’s no wonder Mr Johnson is facing a backlash when MPS get to vote on the new system.
“There is no logic whatsoever in having a month of lockdown only for people to have to live under an even more severe set of restrictions afterwards,” said a furious Ms Baldwin. She questioned the Government’s strategy of “cycles of damaging lockdowns and severe restrictions” and said she could only vote for the new measures if evidence was made available showing “explicitly” that the current strategy is “saving more lives than it costs”.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the influential foreign affairs committee and MP for Tonbridge and Malling, which like all of Kent is now on “very high alert” in Tier 3, said: “We went into lockdown at Tier 1 and came out at Tier 3. This isn’t working for us.”
It will be hard not to have sympathy for the county’s beleaguered night-time industry; perhaps even harder for Mr Johnson to explain to Kent (and other shires) what just happened. The angry brigade of Tunbridge Wells may have every right to be incandescent. They went into the national lockdown with 49 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 and now enter Tier 3 with 103 cases per 100,000. By comparison, the London borough of Bexley, which sits on Kent County Council’s doorstep, stays in Tier 2, with 250 cases per 100,000. In fact all of London stays in Tier 2.
Damian Green, MP for Ashford in Kent and Theresa May’s former deputy prime minister, said: “There are huge anomalies. The second biggest town, Tenterden, in my constituency has no cases so people living there can drive three miles to Sussex which has higher cases and go to the pub.
“My real fear is that if people don’t think the restrictions are needed then they won’t obey them.”
Even Nadhim Zahawi, a Government minister and loyal Johnson ally, was aghast. “Hugely disappointed that we are in Tier 3,” said the MP for Stratford-upon-avon where cases are just over 100 in 100,000 (again far lower than large parts of London).
Mr Zahawi blamed hospital admissions in Solihull in the north of Warwickshire, but it will leave loyal Tory voters in the county wondering why them.
In a statement the Royal Shakespeare Company expressed its slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune. The
atres and cinemas must stay closed in Tier 3. “We are deeply disappointed,” said the RSC’S executive director Catherine Mallyon and artistic director Gregory Doran, “We are desperately disappointed with the news as we know audiences want to come and be welcomed back into the theatre.
“The announcement today means further difficulties and hardship to theatres and freelance colleagues around the country on top of those already faced over the last eight months.”
Further west, Bristol will lick its wounds too. The Covid rate has barely budged from 292 per 100,000 pre-lockdown to 309 per 100,000 but the city has leapt from Tier 1 to Tier 3.
Surrounding North Somerset and South Gloucestershire have been dragged down too – a decision that prompted unexpected criticism from John Penrose, the husband of Test and Trace boss Dido Harding. The MP for Weston-super-mare, and fellow Tory MP Liam Fox ( North Somerset), declared the decision “illogical”. Bath, they pointed out, is in Tier 2 despite its close connections to Bristol.
“This isn’t right or fair,” they said. “We hope that, at the review point in 14 days’ time, this methodology can be changed so that North Somerset can be treated on its own merits, and so hardworking businesses aren’t punished because of higher infection rates in Bristol.”
The Tory Red Wall that handed Mr Johnson his 80-seat majority has also been hit hard. The whole of the North East i s stuck in Tier 3 along with swathes of constituencies that got the Prime Minister into office.
Chris Green, Bolton West’s Conservative MP, questioned the purpose of bringing Liverpool down a tier but keeping Manchester and Bolton in stricter lockdown. “When people go Christmas shopping, a whole load of Mancunians might be going to Liverpool to do that,” he pointed out. “If the objective was to genuinely control coronavirus you would not create an environment that encourages people to travel. It’s naive to think this wouldn’t happen. Confidence in the system is now lacking.”
Shane Moore, leader of Hartlepool borough council, said: “Once again London is getting preferential treatment while the North is punished.” He suspected more testing was being carried out in the North than in London. The tier system, said the mayor, was a “farce”.
Down south, one of Mr Johnson’s biggest fans, the Conservative MP Conor Burns, said he had difficulty explaining to Bournemouth voters what had just happened. “Question from a constituent that I’m struggling to answer: how can you end a four-week lockdown in a worse place in terms of restrictions than before it?” Mr Burns posted on Twitter. “I am hugely disappointed that Bournemouth has been placed in Tier 2 and do not see how it is justified by any robust evidence or modelling.”
The new tiers for England threaten tears for Mr Johnson. He could wake up today to discover that disillusioned Brexit voters who turned out for him in droves at the election may be wondering if they backed the right horse. Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader who has relaunched it under the banner Reform UK, spotted a change in mood.
“Kent has gone from Tier 1 to Tier 3 because of a single borough. Insane, people are really angry,” he posted on Twitter, describing the new tier system as “lockdown in all but name” and warning “that mass rulebreaking is coming”.
Mr Johnson should take note.