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Boris Johnson will insist there is “no alternative” to the national shutdown as he addresses the House of Commons on Monday amid mounting fury among Conservative MPs after ministers admitted that the new “stay-at-home order” “It could be extended beyond December 2.
The prime minister will tell parliament that without the new draconian measures, which take effect in England on Thursday, deaths from coronavirus during the winter could be “twice as severe or even worse” than in the first wave.
He promises that the government will “seek to ease” the restrictions when the measures expire. However, Cabinet Minister Michael Gove made it clear on Sunday that they could stay in place if they haven’t cut the infection rate enough yet.
Gove said: “We have this four week period, during which we are going to review progress, but of course we will always be guided by the data. We will always make a decision in the national interest, based on evidence. “
Pressed by Sophy Ridge at Sky News on whether that meant the measures could be extended, he said “yes.”
Sage member Jeremy Farrar, president of the Wellcome Trust, echoed Gove’s caution, saying it was important not to be too “fixated” on the December 2 end date.
If the infection rate, hospital admissions and other key metrics hadn’t fallen enough by then, he said, the measures should be extended. “It is much better to do that than to remove these restrictions and then have to impose even more draconian restrictions during Christmas or early in the new year,” he told BBC One The Andrew Marr Show.
The latest official data showed that on Sunday, 23,254 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the UK. Another 162 people died within 28 days of a positive test.
Johnson will lay out his plan to parliament after a chaotic weekend in which his dramatic announcement ran after it was leaked Friday night, causing shock among his own advocates.
Amid forecasts that the economy could take a hit of up to 10% as a result of the new restrictions, the Bank of England is set to announce a fresh injection of cash into the economy later this week.
The city had been waiting for the resumption of the Threadneedle Street quantitative easing program even before the new closure was announced, but now it sees a new support package as inevitable.
The Treasury plans to announce more generous support for the self-employed after the continuation of the employee leave plan, but no further action from Chancellor Rishi Sunak is currently planned.
Gerard Lyons, who was Johnson’s top economic adviser when he was mayor of London, said the shutdown was “terrible news” for the economy, which he said could contract by as much as 10%.
“This lockdown will ensure that a large part of the economy is in a moribund state and will require a lot of new stimulus and aid,” Lyons said.
Sunak had previously resisted a nationwide shutdown amid fears about its financial cost, but stuck with the plan amid the risk that hospitals would be overwhelmed in a few weeks without action.
“If you have an NHS that is not going to work, people are not going to run out of purchases, they will stay at home. The economy is ruined anyway and people lose faith in government, “said a Whitehall source.
Sunak’s abrupt decision to extend the leave scheme, which pays 80% of workers’ wages at affected companies, was met with fury among mayors in the north, who repeatedly urged him to take the same approach when cities like Manchester and Liverpool faced tough Tier 3 restrictions last month.
“This morning, millions of people woke up knowing that the Prime Minister of this country believes that the North is worth less than the South,” said Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region. “Frankly, the government has treated us with contempt again.”
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, called for an end to the government’s “differential treatment” of low-wage people and “people of the north versus people of the south.”
Conservative MPs also lined up to criticize the government’s approach on Sunday. Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour that he will vote against the government’s lockdown measures in Wednesday’s vote.
Former Brexit secretary David Davis said he feared the lockdown would last until spring, when the virus resurfaces.
“In March, Boris said let’s hope this lasts only four weeks, and it lasted four months. I firmly believe that this time it will last six months. Because when December 2 arrives and R is still 1.5, which will be, because this blockade will remain less than the previous one, then it will have to continue. “
He said that only countries that have aggressively applied a “test, trace and isolation” approach, including drastic measures such as closing borders and separating those who test positive from their families in isolation rooms, have managed to control it successfully.
Another former cabinet minister said they believed ministers had no choice but to act, but the weekend’s “disaster” “could cost us dearly at the polls.”
Former Minister George Freeman said he would support the government, but only on the basis of a clear strategy in which local leaders would be given more power to balance health and economic risks in their areas in the future.
MPs will be given a vote on the measures on Wednesday, before they go into effect, but they are likely to pass with Labor support, even if a significant number of Conservatives rebel.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth will urge the government to use the four-week lockdown period to correct deficiencies in the test and trace system.
It will call for a much more extensive “retrospective” contact tracing to identify the source of the outbreaks, and urge the government to use new saliva-based rapid test kits to conduct weekly screenings of high-risk workers.
These should include NHS staff, as well as other workers at risk, such as those in education, transportation, retail and hospitality, Ashworth suggested.
“The coronavirus is growing fiercely and urgent action is needed to bring the R below 1 across the country, which is why the Labor Party urged Boris Johnson to seize the opportunity of the mid-term break for a ‘cut circuit ‘for a limited time,’ he said.
“This did not happen, and the testing and tracing have been overwhelmed. Controlling Covid-19 depends on correcting the tracing, ensuring rapid delivery of tests, and introducing periodic weekly tests to identify the 70% of carriers who may not have symptoms but can still spread the virus. “
Speaking to MPs, Johnson will uphold his decision not to block England sooner, as recommended by scientific advisers in September, an option that Labor claims will have cost lives.
“I know some in the house believe that we should have made this decision earlier, but I think it was right to try all possible options to control this virus locally, with strong local action and strong local leadership,” said the prime minister . the minister is expected to say.
