PM says ‘ we can’t afford to relax’ as 53 Tories rebel against new tiers
BORIS Johnson has won the backing of MPs for new coronavirus rules despite a mass revolt by Conservative MPs.
A total of 53 backbenchers including former Cabinet ministers voted against the Prime Minister’s toughened three- tier regional regime in the biggest rebellion since last year’s general election.
But a motion backing the measures was approved by 291 to 78 in a Commons vote after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ordered his MPs to abstain, saving the Government from a humiliating defeat.
As a result, the rules – putting almost all of England under the two toughest tiers of restrictions – came into force just after midnight.
A Government spokesman said: “We welcome tonight’s vote which endorses our Winter Plan, brings an end to the national restrictions and returns England to a tiered system.
“This will help to safeguard the gains made during the past month and keep the virus under control. We will continue to work with MPs who have expressed concerns in recent days.”
The 53 Tory rebels included former Cabinet ministers Andrea Leadsom, Jeremy Wright and Damian Green who voted against the motion. A further 17 Conservative MPs abstained. Some Labour MPs also defied party whips by voting against the measures.
Leading rebel Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, formed by Tories sceptical about many of the restrictions on businesses, said: “We very much regret that in a moment of national crisis so many of us felt forced to vote against the measures that the Government was proposing.
“The House of Commons has spoken and we hope that the Government will take on board the comments we have been making on the need for better data and modelling, regional cost- benefit analysis
and on trusting MPs with the information they need to make such important decisions on behalf of their constituents.
“We must find a way to break the transmission of the disease, recapture the public’s support and confidence, end this devastating cycle of repeated restrictions and start living in a sustainable way until an effective and safe vaccine is successfully rolled out across the population.”
Shortly before the vote, Mr Johnson made an impassioned attempt to win over Tory rebels in an online conference call. He told them: “It’s time to show unity.”
Calling for patience as hopes for a vaccine rise, the Prime Minister told them: “It is like we are at the end of a six- hour journey and the kids are going crazy on the back seat asking, ‘ Are we nearly there yet?’”
Mr Johnson told the MPs he understood that “everyone’s patience is really now at an end but we are nearly there and if we all want to get there together, we are going to have to keep going”.
He added: “I don’t want to be doing any of this, I’m a Conservative, I didn’t come into politics to intervene in businesses.”
Earlier, the Prime Minister toured the Commons tea room to urge MPs to back his measures.
Winding up the debate in the Commons, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs: “The end is in sight. The return of our freedoms is on the horizon. The virus is back under control, the NHS has been protected.
“Let’s not throw it all away now. We must have resolve to do not what is easy but what is right.”
Opening the six- hour Commons debate, the Prime Minister said vaccines under development “could turn the tide of our struggle against Covid, not just in this country but around the world.” He said: “It is the protection of those vaccines that could get our economies moving again, and allow us to reclaim our lives.”
But Mr Johnson warned MPs that lifting restrictions before a vaccine is ready would allow the virus to multiply again.
He said: “We have to be realistic and we have to accept that this vaccine is not here yet, no vaccine is here yet.
“And while all the signs are promising, and almost every scientist I’ve talked to agrees that the breakthrough will surely come, we do not yet have one that has gained regulatory approval.
“We can’t be completely sure when the moment will arrive and until then we cannot afford to relax, especially during the cold months of winter.”
In an attempt to lessen the scale of the rebellion, the PM announced a one- off payment of £ 1,000 for pubs forced to remain closed under the restrictions.