MPs have backed the governments four-week delay to England’s lockdown easing, MPs vote by 461 to 60 in the Commons.
The approval means the regulations can stay in place until the 19th of July despite a sizable Conservative rebellion against the move to delay.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs ahead of the vote there has been a “significant change” that has given the virus “extra legs”.
Mr Hancock claimed to pause step 4 of the roadmap out of restrictions was a “difficult but essential decision”.
He added: “We don’t yet know the extent to which the link between hospitalisation and deaths has been broken so we propose to give the NHS a few more crucial weeks to get those remaining jabs into the arms of those who need them.”
Labours MPs supported the move however claimed the party did so with a did so “with a heavy heart”.
On Monday Prime Minister Johnson said delaying the planned lifting of restrictions would give the NHS “a few more crucial weeks” to get people vaccinated.
51 Conservative MPs voted against the motion with some expressing their concern at the move.
Former Conservative minister, Mark Harper, who chairs the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group, said: “My worry, and the worry of others, is we’re going to get to this point in four weeks’ time and we’re just going to be back here all over again extending the restrictions.”
Senior Conservative Sir Desmond Swayne MP said ministers’ response to the rising cases was disproportionate and a threat to civil liberties.
“I always thought it was wrong for them to take our freedoms, even though they believed that they were acting in our best interests in an emergency, but by any measure that emergency has now passed and yet freedoms are still withheld, and the government will not allow us to assess for ourselves the risks that we are prepared to encounter in our ordinary everyday lives,” he told the Common.
Once again the government has easily won the vote with the blessing of the Labour Party.
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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