UK Coronavirus Live: Former Whip Chief Joins Conservative Revolt Ahead Of Commons Vote On English Blockade Politics

Good Morning. MPs will vote on regulations (pdf) imposing the coronavirus lockdown in England (starting tomorrow) this afternoon and while there is no chance the government will lose because it has Labor support, Boris Johnson will face a secondary conservative rebellion. . Not expected to be very large, on Monday Sir Charles Walker, a vice chairman of the 1922 Conservative Committee, said that only 15 Conservatives would rebel, but it won’t be insignificant either, for two reasons.

First, skeptics of the blockade have strong support in the conservative press. For example, today’s Sun editorial describes the blockade as “a giant, blind leap back into the abyss.” Sun editorials are often best ignored, but in conservative party politics these views still count. Today’s rebel vote will legitimize these arguments.

And secondly, all of this is a precursor to the vote that will have to take place when the Commons decide how to replace the shutdown after December 2. Johnson may win comfortably today, but the conservative libertarian wing is also looking to shut down the possibility of anything that looks like an extension of the lockdown in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

This morning some conservatives who until now were undecided have pledged to vote against the government.

Mark Harper, the former whip boss, has said in an article for ConservativeHome that he will oppose the shutdown. He says:

I have a fundamental objection to the use of reasonable force to enforce these regulations by agents of the state who are not properly trained to use that force safely. As a former Home Office minister, I have seen that when reasonable force is used incorrectly, it can lead to unnecessary deaths.

Despite the assurances of the ministers in the dispatch box that this matter was going to be resolved, unfortunately it has not been. These regulations give the power to use reasonable force to PCSOs and, more concerning, to any “person designated by the secretary of state for the purposes of this regulation.” My view is that the use of reasonable force should be limited to police officers, who receive meaningful training on when and how to use this power safely.

In light of the above, I do not believe that the government has advocated a shift away from the tiered system and in favor of a national blockade across England.

Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister has used a Telegraph article to explain why he is voting against the shutdown. He says:

I regret that I do not feel capable of imposing the undoubted costs of the confinement on the basis of the necessary balancing judgments. It is with a heavy heart that I plan to vote against this measure, but I will not condemn anyone for supporting the blockade if they believe it will minimize the damage.

Harper and Baker devote much of their respective arguments to criticizing the charts used to justify the shutdown at the Saturday night press conference, and in particular the now-discredited projection that deaths could reach 4,000 a day. In hindsight, that graph appears to have backfired.

Peter bone, who on Monday said he was still undecided, has confirmed that he will vote against. He is also unhappy with the modeling.

And so has Stephen McPartland.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30 am: Nicola Sturgeon, Prime Minister of Scotland, gives testimony to the Covid-19 committee of the Scottish Parliament.

9.30 am: Sage Fellow Professor Peter Horby and Other Scholars Give Evidence of ‘Coronavirus – Lessons Learned’ Research Being Conducted by Commons Health and Science Committees; at 11 am Kate Bingham, chair of the Vaccine Task Force, testifies.

11am: Sir Simon Stevens, Director of NHS England, gives a press conference.

12:00 h: Boris Johnson faces off against Sir Keir Starmer at PMQ.

12:15 pm: Sturgeon is expected to hold a briefing on the coronavirus.

12:15 pm: The government of Wales is planning to hold a briefing on the coronavirus.

Around 12:45 pm: Johnson opens the debate on the regulations imposing the blockade on England. The deputies will vote around 3:45 pm.

Politics Live is now doubling down as the UK’s coronavirus live blog and given the way the Covid crisis overshadows everything, this will continue for the foreseeable future. But we will also cover political stories that do not belong to Covid, and when they seem more important or more interesting, they will take precedence.

Here’s our global coronavirus live blog.

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