James Grundy MP: With great reluctance I may be unable to support the Government

I must admit, this has been a very difficult decision, and one I have given a great deal of consideration to over the last few days, for the reasons I shall set out below.

As you may be aware, several weeks ago, I made a public statement in which I promised my constituents that I would not support a second national lockdown, whether proposed by the opposition, or by the Government.

It is important that when politicians make promises to their constituents, they try to keep them.

This was a promise made in good faith, as I believed that a second lockdown would be immensely damaging, even though well intentioned.

As many people who have been following the debate on a second lockdown will know, this would not be a permanent solution, and would lead to a rolling series of lockdowns every six weeks or so, for so long as the virus is with us, which is hopefully months, but potentially years. This is simply not sustainable.

It is, of course, critically important to protect the elderly and the medically vulnerable, the two groups most at risk from Coronavirus.

I speak as someone who lives with my father, a 79 year old lung cancer survivor, whose welfare during this crisis I have constantly been concerned about, worrying whether I may inadvertently bring a deadly disease back through the door into my family home.

It is a concern many families have been faced with during this crisis. Everybody agrees that protecting the elderly and vulnerable should be a matter of the highest priority. The question is, what is the best way to achieve this?

I have also been struck by the significant number of emails I have received from small businesses and from self employed people, who have spoken about the terrible anxiety they have suffered since the announcement was made.

Even with the support provided by the Government, a package that was one of the most generous in the world, comprising furlough, grants, loans, tax breaks and other measures, their resources are exhausted, and they cannot sustain the financial pressures of a second lockdown, let alone the pressures of a third, a fourth, or a fifth.

There has to be a better way to deal with this crisis than a measure that will bring mass unemployment, mass poverty and mass misery to millions of families.

Unless the targeted financial support put on the table for struggling small businesses and self employed people is significantly improved, and unless there is a clear timetable for the imminent rollout of a vaccine, then I will, with great regret, and great reluctance, be unable to support the Government on this issue.

A rolling series of lockdowns might, and I stress, might, hold Covid-19 at bay for a few weeks, or months, as the last one did. Then again, it might not.

It certainly will cause absolute devastation to every other part of our society though, and to the health of millions, both physically and mentally.

We must find a better way to deal with this crisis, a method that protects the health of the elderly and vulnerable, but does not reduce ordinary working people to penury and misery at the same time.