‘A lockdown by stealth’ slammed
MINISTERS have been accused of bringing in “local lockdowns by stealth” after quietly slipping out guidance urging people in Indian variant hotspot areas to restrict their socialising and travel.
Labour shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth called on the Government to withdraw the new advice for eight areas in England, where it is being recommended that people do not meet indoors and that travelling in and out of the localities should be avoided.
Health chiefs in the areas have said they were not consulted or informed about the changes, which were published on the Government’s website on Friday without a formal announcement.
Demanding answers during an urgent question in the House of Commons, Mr Ashworth said many of the areas involved – with almost two million people across Bolton, Leicester, Kirklees, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Bedford, North Tyneside and the London Borough of Hounslow affected – had “borne the brunt of the crisis these last 15 months” and felt “abandoned” by Westminster.
“So can the minister understand how upsetting it is, can he understand how insulting it is, to have new restrictions imposed upon us?” asked the Leicester South MP.
“Local lockdowns by stealth, by the back door, and the Secretary of State (Matt Hancock) doesn’t even have the courtesy to come and tell us.”
Mr Ashworth urged second doses of vaccines to be rolled out at a faster rate to protect against the highly-transmissible Indian mutation, while calling for ministers to “withdraw this guidance now”.
Downing Street and vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, answering the Commons question on behalf of the Government, defended the handling of the battle against the B1617.2 variant, which vaccines being rolled out in the UK have been shown to help guard against.
Mr Zahawi told MPs that the onus was on personal responsibility and that Boris Johnson – who has signalled he does not want to return to locally tiered measures – still intends to take a national approach to lifting restrictions.
“As the Prime Minister said, we want the whole country to move out of these restrictions together and we’re trusting people to be responsible and to act with caution and common sense as they have done throughout this pandemic and to make decisions about how best to protect themselves and their loved ones,” Mr Zahawi said.
The Government has argued that the recommendations to the hotspot areas were first issued on May 14 – with the Prime Minister urging people to be “extra cautious” – before being “formally” published online last week.
No 10 stressed that the guidance was “not statutory” and that the Government wanted to move away from “top-down edicts” as lockdown restrictions ease.