Tory fears England lockdown extension, Rishi Sunak says its ‘time-limited’ by law

The tougher restrictions announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson will see pubs, gyms and non-essential shops closed from Thursday, subject to a vote in Parliament

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said the government expects strict new rules to bring Covid-19 infections down sufficiently in England, as he sought to reassure Conservative lawmakers who fear ministers will extend the four-week partial lockdown in December.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stressed the lockdown will be time-limited in law, it means MPs will get another vote if the government wants to extend it (Reuters file photo)

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The tougher restrictions announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson will see pubs, gyms and non-essential shops closed from Thursday, subject to a vote in Parliament. But after senior cabinet minister Michael Gove said over the weekend the rules could be extended beyond the planned Dec 2 end-date, Sunak on Monday stressed they are “time-limited” by law and will expire.

The fresh lockdown, which the government resisted for weeks amid calls for a so-called virus circuit breaker by the opposition Labour Party, threatens to foment a rebellion within Johnson’s Tory party, with a number of senior rank-and-file members voicing their opposition. They’re concerned about the impingements on civil liberties and the damage being wrought on the economy by repeated national closures.

Sunak said the government expects the lockdown to reduce infections enough to resume Johnson’s regional, tiered approach to social-distancing rules in December -- though he also warned there’s no single criteria that will be used to determine if that’s the case. By saying the lockdown will be time-limited in law, it means MPs will get another vote if the government wants to extend it.

‘Firm Hope’

“Our expectation and firm hope -- on the basis of everything we know today -- is the measures we put in place, for the time that they are going to be in place for, will be sufficient to do the job that we need,” Sunak told BBC Radio.

Johnson will deliver a statement to the House of Commons on Monday afternoon to set out the latest measures, after a leak on Friday night rushed him into an announcement on Saturday. He’ll say that scientific modelling showed that without action, the rate of deaths could be twice as bad as in the first wave of the pandemic.

“Faced with these latest figures, there is no alternative but to take further action at a national level,” Johnson will say, according to his office. “I know some in the House believe we should have reached this decision earlier, but I believe it was right to try every possible option to get this virus under control at a local level, with strong local action and strong local leadership.”

The prime minister will also give details of extra assistance to self-employed people during the lockdown, raising state aid to more than current plans for 40% of their usual earnings, Sunak said. The chancellor has already increased aid to the employed by extending his flagship wage support program, which had been due to end at the weekend, for the duration of the new restrictions.

Too Late

But the extension came too late for many people laid off by companies last week ahead of the program’s scheduled end. Sunak defended his decision to stick with his original time frame, saying it was only the changing health data and subsequent lockdown that forced a rethink.

Bloomberg Economics said the second lockdown will mean the economy contracts in the fourth quarter and that the Bank of England will increase its asset purchase target this week by possibly more than the 100 billion pounds ($129 billion) previously forecast.

A second national lockdown will be “truly devastating,” Carolyn Fairbairn, outgoing director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said on Monday. The government must keep as much of the economy open as possible and needs a clear strategy for exiting the lockdown, she said.

Still, Johnson’s plan is almost certain to pass in the House of Commons because it’s backed by Labour. Of bigger concern to the prime minister will be the size of any Tory rebellion, and if he has to rely on opposition parties to win the vote.

Rebellion

Tory lawmakers have already shown their displeasure at the coronavirus restrictions, when 42 of them rebelled in a vote last month to confirm the government’s imposition of a 10 p.m. curfew on pubs and restaurants.

“This repetitive cycle of lockdowns is immensely damaging to people’s livelihoods, is deeply depressing and is causing a huge toll in terms of people’s mental health and family relationships,” Graham Brady, who heads the influential 1922 committee of rank-and-file Conservatives MPs, told BBC Radio late Sunday.

Adding to the potential danger is the latest intervention by Nigel Farage, one of the architects of Brexit. Following a pattern of entering the political scene when he senses Tory disquiet, Farage announced the re-branding of his Brexit Party as Reform UK He sent a message to supporters calling the government’s “woeful” response to the pandemic the “most pressing” issue facing the country.

“The government has dug itself into a hole and rather than admit its mistakes, it keeps on digging,” Farage wrote. “The new national lockdown will result in more life-years lost than it hopes to save, as non-Covid patients with cancer, cardiac, lung and other illnesses have treatments delayed or cancelled again. Suicides are soaring. Businesses and jobs are being destroyed.”