Warning to Johnson to follow the science, even if it means extending lockdown
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It is now urgent that Boris Johnson stamps down on this variant as quickly as possible.” The chair of Westminster’s all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, Layla Moran, said that Mr Johnson must “absolutely” be ready to roll back relaxations of lockdown restrictions if his scientific advisers recommend it, even if it meant calling off Monday’s easement at the last minute or reversing the steps towards normality that are planned for the coming week. We need to know that they’re listening to Sage.” The government’s decision to ignore Sage advice for a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown last September was “a big mistake”, said Ms Moran. “All we want is for him to be following the best advice.” Labour MP Rosie Cooper, a member of the House of Commons Health Committee whose West Lancashire constituency lies between Bolton and Formby – two hotspots of the B1.617.2 variant – said: “Nobody wants lockdown, be it national or local, to continue for a day longer than it has to. If R gets above one, the prime minister has to consider slowing things down.” Mark Logan, the Conservative MP for Bolton North East, said that, despite Monday’s relaxations, he would be urging constituents “to try as much as they can not to mix, to maintain social distancing and wearing of face masks over the days and weeks ahead”.
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