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Boris Johnson is urging MPs today to approve England’s new shutdown, but the prime minister continues to face backlash from his own Tory MPs over the new shutdown.
Following a 90-minute debate on the new national measures, the House of Commons will vote Wednesday afternoon on whether to give the green light to a second blockade.
If approved, non-essential pubs, bars, restaurants and shops will close across England on Thursday and will remain closed until December 2.
And, for the next four weeks, people will be told to stay home other than when they go to school, college, work, or grocery shopping.
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The vote comes after the UK reported 397 daily deaths from coronavirus – the highest number since May.
There is little chance that the prime minister will see MPs not backing his plans, with Labor willing to back the new measures.
But Wednesday’s debate will give conservative MPs who oppose a new lockdown another chance to voice their criticism of the prime minister’s strategy against the coronavirus.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer could also use the Prime Minister’s Questions, which precedes the debate on the closure of the Commons, to ask again why Johnson ignored his calls for an early “circuit breaker” closure.
The prime minister has resisted calls to waive some outdoor sports, such as tennis and golf, from closure.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 ministers and church leaders He wrote to Johnson on Tuesday to urge him to reverse his decision to ban services and only allow individual prayer in places of worship.
One of the lockdown’s Conservative rebels, Sir Charles Walker, told Sky News this week that 15 Conservative MPs would vote against the new measures for England.
On Tuesday, Johnson got a glimpse of the backlash he will face from members of his own party.
During a debate in Westminster Hall, Conservative MPs used the Commons Annex to tear apart the prime minister’s approach to the pandemic.
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Richard Drax, the South Dorset MP, accused the government of putting the country on a “roller coaster of lockdowns and releases” until a COVID-19 vaccine is found.
He compared the lockdown to “house arrest” and claimed that “a draconian, burdensome and invasive set of rules and regulations now govern our very existence.”
Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely said those who believed England would come out of lockdown on December 2 were “living in a parallel universe.”
“Three years ago, 22,000 people died from the winter flu,” he added.
“By the logic of some people in this House, we do indeed have to close our lives for six months out of the year in case people die.
“I just think that it is a strangely dangerous precedent that we are falling, that the government now effectively believes that it can stop death.”
Chris Green, the Bolton West MP, criticized the “somewhat erratic nature” of the government’s response to COVID-19.
“At Bolton, we have gone through the national closure restrictions, the Greater Manchester local closure and the Bolton economic closure,” he said.
“We went back to the Manchester blockade and went to Level 2, then Level 3.
“Before we know it, we will be in another national blockade.”
At a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Johnson urged his top ministers to use the lockdown to “develop solutions that did not exist in the previous lockdown,” such as massive COVID-19 testing.
