MPs vote for a four-week delay to England's lockdown easing

CoronavirusPA Media

Lockdown restrictions in England will be extended by up to four weeks after MPs backed the government in a Commons vote by 461 to 60.

It means the regulations can stay in place until 19 July, despite a large Tory rebellion against the move.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs ahead of the vote there has been a "significant change" that has given the virus "extra legs".

Labour supported the delay but said it did so "with a heavy heart".

On Monday, Boris Johnson said delaying the planned lifting of restrictions would give the NHS "a few more crucial weeks" to get people vaccinated.

The decision means pubs, clubs and theatres will still have to operate within capacity limits and nightclubs will remain closed.

And limits remain on how many people can meet up, with groups of up to 30 allowed to gather outdoors and up to six people or two households allowed indoors, although weddings will be exempt.

Several Conservative MPs expressed their unhappiness with the plans and 51 voted against the government.

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."

'Freedoms withheld'

Senior Tory Sir Desmond Swayne 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 said.

Former cabinet minister Dame Andrea Leadsom said while she would reluctantly back the government in the vote, she urged ministers to show some "flexibility" and if possible lift restrictions after two weeks rather than four.

On weddings, she said: "For many couples being able to hug, but not dance, you can't have a band, you've got to socially distance, that's not the kind of big day that they wanted for themselves and their families, so can he reconsider this?"

School and university students, she added, "are now faced for the second year in a row with no end-of-year celebrations".

'Live with it'

Opening the debate, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said pausing step 4 of the roadmap out of restrictions was a "difficult but essential decision".

He said figures showed the Delta variant now accounts for 96% of new cases and the number of infections was rising - with hospitalisations up 48% over the past week.

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."

And he said the government's objective was "not to eradicate" the virus, he said, because "that is not possible" but rather to aim "to live with it" like we do with flu.

And he said the delay to 19 July would enable "a majority" of the over-40s to have two doses of the vaccine.

Mr Hancock also announced that Covid vaccinations are to become compulsory for staff at care homes in England

The government easily won the vote thanks to Labour's support.

Labour's shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said lifting all restrictions now "could be akin to throwing petrol on a fire" and it was essential to listen to the warnings from health professionals and help relieve the pressure on hospitals.

But he added: "We are only here because over the last eight weeks we have failed to contain the Delta variant and have allowed it to become dominant."

MPs also voted to back a range of other measures, such as extending the wearing of face coverings on public transport to 19 July.

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