WOKINGHAM MP Sir John Redwood has indicated that he might not vote in favour of the new lockdown measures introduced in England today.
Last night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the nation to stay at home once again to try and avoid the NHS from being overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients.
“In England alone, the number of Covid patients in hospitals has increased by nearly a third in the last week, to almost 27,000,” he said. “That number is 40% higher than the first peak in April.”
But Sir John is concerned that while the government has presented the case for lockdown, they had not looked at wider issues: “(They) do not present the case about the damage lock downs do to many people and businesses so we can weigh the balance of the arguments,” he wrote on his blog.
He also called for regular information on NHS bed occupancy and deaths from other lung diseases.
“I do not doubt that (Covid-19) is a nasty disease and some people catch a serious version of it which can be life threatening,” he said. “We need to target our response based on improving knowledge of it, and offer good safeguarding to all those most vulnerable to it.”
Sir John vowed to press the government for better treatments, isolation and infection control and that the Nightingale hospitals should be in use.
He also queried lockdowns in other parts of the world.
“There is no sign from the international numbers that those locking down more for longer have been more successful in reducing case numbers or deaths,” he wrote.
“The 20 countries with most cases per million so far are mainly continental European ones that have imposed tough lockdowns, and the USA with severe lockdowns on the populous Democrat controlled east and west coasts,” he added.
Sir John ended his blog post by stating: “I will seek more information about the capacity of the NHS before deciding how to vote on new controls.”
If Sir John votes against the new lockdown restrictions when Parliament debates it on Wednesday, January 6, he will be echoing the stance he took on December 1, when the second lockdown ended and the new Tier structure was introduced, which placed Wokingham borough into Tier 2.
“Many of my constituents are very angry that west Berkshire and Wokingham have been placed in tier 2 when we were in tier 1 before the national lockdown and we still have very low figures,” he told the chamber, asking the government to produce a “proper package” to support the self-employed and small businesses, saying that these sectors had suffered the most from closures.
“They cannot put food on the table unless they get public support or can trade profitably,” he said, adding that there needed to be a full recovery programme sector-by-sector.
“Can we not hear a lot more about this and be positive? We need to cheer up the country up as well as control the virus.”
