Minister shows off face covering made by son
MPs in spotlight over Covid masks
AN MP has shown off a face covering designed by her son after ministers were criticised for not being spotted in public wearing masks.
Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage said she wears a mask ‘all the time’ as the government came under pressure to answer why more senior figures had not been seen wearing coverings.
Ms Dinenage, when asked if she had worn a covering since the coronavirus pandemic started, said she regularly wore face masks made by her son and that she had posted an image of herself wearing it on social media.
To mark face masks being made mandatory on public transport last month, the Tory MP tweeted a picture of herself on June 5 while wearing a cloth covering.
Ms Dinenage told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I wear mine all the time. I have a fashion design student as a son who has run me up a few on his sewing machine and I wear them all the time.
‘A lot of us are out there wearing them as we go about our daily lives.’
Ms Dinenage said ‘you’d have to ask the prime minister and the chancellor’ when questioned why neither of the highest ranking ministers had been photographed wearing a covering in public.
She said ‘lots of my colleagues’ had taken to wearing a face covering, adding: ‘If the scientific evidence proves that it (the guidance on masks) definitely is something that needs to change, then of course we will.’
Ms Dinenage showed The News a photo of the covering designed by her son Ed.
It comes as Ms Dinenage, a culture minister, insisted Britain must now turn its gaze to recovering its crippled leisure industry following the coronavirus crisis.
She said it was critical people were allowed to do the activities they ‘love and enjoy’ which were ‘really good’ for their physical and mental health.
The Tory minister was speaking out following the government’s latest easing of lockdown measures, which will see gyms, swimming pools and other leisure facilities opening after months in hibernation.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast yesterday, the MP said: ‘Swimming pools won’t be re-opening until July 25 so we have still got plenty of time to put in place the mitigations to make sure that people feel safe being able to do it and to balance that with the public health risks of not re-opening things.’