Katy Balls Katy Balls

Senior Tories urge government to toughen restrictions

(Photo by Stefan Rousseau – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

As government ministers hint at tougher restrictions to come, one of the themes of lockdown measures so far has been resistance from the Conservative parliamentary party. However, while there remains some unease on the Tory benches over both the Christmas measures and the lack of parliamentary scrutiny of them, there has also been an increase in the number of Tory MPs willing to call for the opposite: tougher measures sooner.

Jeremy Hunt has made a public intervention today. The former health secretary has called on the government to move to a national lockdown without delay. He say this ought to include the closure of schools and borders — as well as a ban on all household mixing. The justification for such measures? He says that what we are seeing is not a normal winter crisis and that early action will save lives. Hunt adds that the arrival of a vaccine means that the lockdown will be time limited.

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