Ashworth accuses ministers of deploying “local lockdowns by stealth”

Jonathan Ashworth has accused ministers of implementing “lockdowns by stealth” after it emerged that the government updated Covid public health guidance last week without an official announcement or notifying affected councils.

Following an urgent question in parliament this afternoon, the Shadow Health Secretary urged vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, standing in for Health Secretary Matt Hancock today, to urgently withdraw the guidance.

“Can he understand how insulting it is to have new restrictions imposed upon us, local lockdowns by stealth – by the backdoor?” Ashworth told the minister. “The Secretary of State doesn’t even have the curtesy to come and tell us.”

“Why was this guidance plonked on a website on Friday night and not communicated to everyone? Why were local directors of public health and local authority leaders not consulted? Why weren’t MPs informed?”

Ashworth told Zahawi: “Withdraw this guidance now, and convene a meeting this afternoon of the relevant directors of public health to produce a plan involving isolation support and enhanced contact tracing.

“And, because he knows from his own work as vaccines minister that a single dose of the vaccine is less effective against this particular variant, will he produce a plan with local directors to roll out vaccination to everybody and look at bringing forward the second dose for a larger cohort of people?”

Ministers were accused of “incompetence” this morning after publishing a list of eight areas most affected by the ‘Indian variant’ on Friday evening, advising against all but essential travel and updating guidance on social distancing.

Zahawi told the Commons this afternoon that the government is coming down “really hard” on the new variant. He also reported that 72% of adults in the UK have now had a first dose of vaccine, and that 43% have received their second.

“One thing I would urge,” he told Ashworth. “Is that we all work together and take the politics out of this. I think our constituents deserve that.” He said the government is asking people in the listed areas “to be cautious, to be careful”.

“So, on visiting family, that he asked about – you know, meet outside rather than inside where possible, meeting indoors is still allowed in a group of six or two households, but meeting outdoors is safer,” he added.

“Meet two metres apart from people you don’t live with unless you have formed a support bubble. This includes obviously friends and family you don’t live with. So, yes, people can visit family in half term…

“Avoid travelling in and out of the affected areas, as the Prime Minister said on the 14th, unless it is essential. For example, for work purposes. The whole principle here, Mr Speaker, is that we need to work together.”

The local authorities listed by the government guidance published on its website on Friday are: Bedford; Blackburn with Darwen; Bolton; Burnley; Kirklees; Leicester City; Hounslow in London; and North Tyneside.

Bolton recorded 451 overall cases per 100,000 people in the week to May 20th, the highest in England. Local Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi said this morning that she was “gobsmacked” by the changing of the guidance without an announcement.

In the two weeks to May 15th, the Indian variant accounted for 81% of analysed samples in Bedford, 90.4% in Blackburn and 64% in Wigan. Preliminary analysis showed that after one dose the vaccines saw a drop in effectiveness of around 33.5%