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Member of Parliament for Amber Valley

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Coronavirus restrictions vote update

Today in Parliament I voted for the 4 week lockdown starting tonight (at 0.01am on the 5th November 2020).

I hoped that there would be no need for another lockdown and that the social distancing and  local tier measures would be sufficient to keep the virus under control without all the negative consequences that flow from lockdown. In recent weeks the numbers of cases had started to increase rapidly – in Amber Valley cases have been running close to the national average resulting in additional restrictions coming into force last week.

Regrettably it became increasingly clear that a tougher approach was needed, not least as cases began to increase in the more vulnerable over 60 groups and hospital admissions began to rise. The scientific advice provided to the Government was clear – not acting now risked health services having to be severely restricted for non-covid cases and possibly being unable to cope.

While there are many questions about data and forecasts based on this position I could not justify opposing a lockdown and risking thousands of extra deaths from both Covid and other conditions. We now all need to obey the rules to help ensure this lockdown ends in 4 weeks and does not need to be extended. You can find the details of the lockdown here and the Government support measures for businesses and individuals here.