The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has delivered a statement to the house regarding the 3rd national lockdown.
The Prime Minister focused on why the positives that may come out of the 3rd lockdown, such as a great effort towards getting the most vulnerable in society vaccinated, with the target of having two million people vaccinated per week, with the longer-term target of having 15 million people vaccinated by mid-February.
The restrictions, if voted in by MPs tonight, will be in place until 31st March unless the Government believes the virus is under control enough to change the restrictions, something which members of the PM’s own party questioned.
Keir Starmer and Ian Blackford questioned why Mr Johnson has been consistently reactionary to the virus, citing various occasions this has happened, with Mr Starmer saying that the advice that is backing up this latest lockdown was put to the Prime Minister on December 22nd.
Mr Johnson addressed school closures by saying that the decision to close them was taken at the earliest possible stage, reiterating his commitment to make schools the last thing to close and the earliest thing to reopen when the virus allows.
Despite opposition parties supporting the 3rd lockdown, they were clear that they expect the Prime Minister to offer more support for those that are on low income with an extension of the £20 UC increase and also offering support for freelancers and the self-employed that have been left out of Government support since March.
