Labour calls for two to three week lockdown in England
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a two to three week “circuit breaker” in England that would plunge the country back into lockdown.
Starmer called for the England lockdown at a televised press conference today, saying the measure was “in line with Sage’s recommendations”.
Sage, the government’s primary scientific advisory body, published papers last night showing it had pushed for Boris Johnson to implement a two-week lockdown to stop the rising tide of Covid infections.
However, the Prime Minister decided to instead implement lighter touch Covid restrictions across the country through his new three-tier alert systm.
Starmer said a “temporary set of clear and effective restrictions” would help “get the R rate down and reverse the trends of infections and hospital admissions”.
The UK saw almost 13,000 new cases and 50 deaths yesterday.
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Starmer said that if an England lockdown was implemented that it could happen across half term so students do not miss out on their schooling.
“A circuit breaker would require significant sacrifices across the country,” he said.
“It would mean only essential work and travel, that everyone who can work from home should do so.
“Non-essential offices should be closed, household mixing should be restricted to one household except for those who formed support bubbles.
“All pubs, bars and restaurants would be closed for two to three weeks, but compensated so that no business loses out because of the sacrifices we all have to make. It should also mean that the UK parliament moves to remote working.”
Johnson’s three tier warning system sees different levels of Covid restrictions applied to areas based on their Covid infection and hospitalisation rates.
London has been put into tier one, medium risk, meaning no change in the current restrictions.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said it was “inevitable” the capital would be put into tier two, high risk, this week, which would see a ban on indoor household mixing.
Liverpool will be placed into tier three tomorrow, meaning that all household mixing is banned and that alcohol can only be served with a substantial meal at hospitality venues.
The Prime Minister’s plan is going to a vote today in parliament, however Labour did not vote against it despite Starmer’s call for a national lockdown.
When challenged on why Labour did not vote against the package, Starmer said: “We’re not going to vote down a package of restrictions, because restrictions are needed.
“The problem with the vote in parliament is that it’s a take it or leave it vote – if you vote it down there are no restrictions and nobody in any of the areas where cases are going up is calling for no restrictions.”