Tory MP criticises 'fearful' public for backing COVID lockdown delay

A Tory MP has criticised the public for backing an extension to England’s coronavirus lockdown.

Richard Drax was one of 60 MPs, and 49 Conservatives, to vote against the delay to the end of restrictions from 21 June to 19 July.

A YouGov poll on Monday, released shortly before Boris Johnson announced the delay, found 71% of English adults supported it, with 24% opposed.

South Dorset MP Drax, speaking in a House of Commons debate on Wednesday night ahead of a vote on the lockdown extension, asked: “What on earth is happening to our country? Muzzled, acquiescent and fearful.

Watch: MPs back extension of COVID restrictions until 19 July

“Having fought and defeated one project fear, I never thought I’d experience another. Sadly, unlike the first, the polls suggest the majority of the population has succumbed to the second.

“Armed with this information, the decision-makers feel they can creep out with their shovels and move the goalposts at will.”

Defeating the first “project fear”, as Drax put it, was a reference to the Remain campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum. It was accused of taking a doom-laden, negative approach about the UK’s prospects outside the EU.

Similarly, Tory lockdown sceptics have often accused scientists of taking an over-cautious approach when it comes to unlocking.

Drax also rounded on experts advising the government as he added: “Personally, I’m not surprised the nation has been beaten into submission when day after day, hour after hour, we’re deluged with dire warnings of doom and gloom by government advisers of one kind or another.”

Johnson paused the unlocking due to the spread of the 60% more infectious Delta variant, first identified in India, which modelling said could have killed thousands more people if all restrictions were dropped.

The prime minister said a four-week delay would allow for more people to receive a second jab and gain the maximum possible protection from the virus.

Read more:

Just 0.07% of people catch COVID after two vaccine doses, study finds

Indian variant could have R number as high as 7, MPs warned

Another Tory MP, Dr Liam Fox, said in the debate that the country was “being held to ransom” by people who have chosen not to take the vaccine: “That is utterly unacceptable.”

Leading lockdown sceptic Steve Baker also described the situation as a “dystopia”. “We have transformed this society for the worse," he said.

“We have put in place a culture of habits which will take years to shake off, culture and habits which distance people from one another and diminish their quality of life.”

At the vote, the delay was approved by 461 to 60, a majority of 401.

Watch: Thursday's daily politics briefing