June 17, 2021 2.25 pm This story is over 33 months old

Lincolnshire should have no COVID-19 restrictions, MP argues

He did vote to extend lockdown, though
Sir Edward Leigh, MP for Gainsborough.
By Local Democracy Reporter

A Lincolnshire MP has criticised current coronavirus restrictions, and believes the county should not endure any more lockdowns whatsoever.

Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, addressed the House of Commons on Wednesday, June 16 to say that vaccination and case figures would suggest that Lincolnshire should not be under any restrictions at all.

It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the country’s roadmap out of coronavirus lockdown would be delayed from June 21 to July 19, in order to accelerate the vaccination programme.

The MP cited Lincolnshire’s figures of having one death as a result of COVID-19 in the last month, as well as passing 500,000 first doses of the vaccine and having 95% of over 70s with both jabs administered.

Mr Leigh said: “There’s no reason for Lincolnshire to be under any restrictions at all but I accept that we are one country.

“I don’t know why if we must have controls, we can’t have regional controls. There’s been too many fatuous rules based not on science, but on populism.”

Within his speech in the Commons, the Gainsborough MP also accused the Labour Party of “not being interested in freedom” and stated the debate of lockdowns poses a “mortal threat” to the Conservatives.

“This is proven by history,” Mr. Leigh says, “when we had a wartime regulation and controlled economy between 1939 and 1945, and it led to a Labour landslide.

“People get used to controls, and at the end of July there must be an entire reset of the Conservative government. We should be talking about freedom, civil liberties and trusting business.”

However, Mr. Leigh recently voted for an extension to the roadmap restrictions to July 19, along with all his other fellow Lincolnshire MPs, apart from Lincoln representative Karl McCartney who voted against the plans.