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Sir Graham said that any new measure must be approved directly by Parliament.
Parliament must directly approve any new coronavirus restrictions before they go into effect, a leading Conservative MP told the BBC.
Sir Graham said ministers had “become used to ruling by decree” on the issue, citing the “imposition” of the six-limit rule on social gatherings.
He told Radio 4’s Today that public opinion was “moving” and that the government could not take his support for granted.
His warning comes as new measures are considered to address the increasing cases.
In a televised briefing, UK government medical director Professor Chris Whitty said the number of new infections was doubling roughly every seven days and was at risk of “taking off” in all adult age groups.
Unless the UK “changes course” soon, it warned there could be 50,000 new cases a day by the middle of next month, leading to some 200 deaths a day by mid-November.
Speaking ahead of the briefing, Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps said the outlook is “very bleak” and that the government may need to take action “extraordinarily quickly” if existing restrictions do not reduce the number of infections.
Parliamentarians will vote next week on whether to continue allowing the government to use the powers contained in the Coronavirus Act, a piece of emergency legislation accelerated by Parliament in late March.
It grants the government a wide range of emergency powers, although most of Covid’s lockdown laws have been enforced using regulations under the Public Health Act of 1984, which take effect before a parliamentary vote.
‘Pretty extreme’
Sir Graham, who chairs the powerful 1922 committee of conservative advocates, said the six-month review of the March Act was welcome, but that Parliament had to be much more involved in scrutinizing and passing than he said they were. “really extreme emergency powers.”
While accepting that the current situation was “serious”, he said that this did not exempt the government from acting without recourse to Parliament, as he suggested it had happened when it “imposed” the six-limit rule in England.
If there had been a debate on the measures, he said ministers would have been forced to justify why children were included in the maximum number, unlike in Scotland, and what the criteria would be for relaxing the restrictions.
“The government has become accustomed, regarding the coronavirus issue, to ruling by decree without the usual debate, discussion and votes in Parliament that we would expect on any other matter,” he said.
“The British are not used to being treated like children.
“We hope that in this country there is a parliamentary democracy in which our elected representatives on our behalf can demand adequate responses to these, not just impose some.”
Many MPs are concerned that Parliament was sidelined during the pandemic, while the UK’s former highest-ranking judge, Lady Hale, suggested she had “given up her role” when she allowed “radical and draconian” laws to be passed with just a few hours of debate. .
‘It is not normal’
In an essay published on Monday, the former Chief Justice said she hoped the UK could return “to a properly functioning constitution as soon as possible.”
Sir Graham said there is no excuse for the lack of parliamentary debate, adding that “governments find it entirely possible to present things to Parliament quickly when it is in their best interest to do so.”
Former Conservative Minister Tim Loughton told the BBC’s Politics Live that the government needed to explain its actions more clearly, but would not vote against extending the Act because “now is not the time to be complacent.”
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And speaking on BBC Breakfast, Shapps defended the speed at which the government has had to make “often very difficult decisions”, saying that it believes it has acted at all times “with the consent of the British people”.
“We are not in normal times, when we have the luxury of having more time,” he said. “The government sometimes has to act extremely quickly.”
He dismissed reports of a “dispute” in the government over next steps, insisting that ministers were “quite rightly … debating the points, looking from all angles.”
The Labor Party has signaled it would back further restrictions in the coming days, shadow minister Wes Streeting telling BBC Politics Live This was not the time to “waste time”.
Meanwhile, MPs are urging the government not to repeat some of the “mistakes” it made when the pandemic first struck earlier this year.
The Commons Human Rights Committee said that “confusion about what is law and what is simply a guide has left citizens exposed to disproportionate and unequal levels of punishment for violating the rules.”
“Unfortunately, it appears that once again this is overtly affecting the people of BAME,” he said in a new report.
“The government must learn from these mistakes to ensure that any additional blockade does not unfairly affect specific groups.”
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