MP is self-isolating after developing symptoms of Covid-19

The Conservative member did not say if he had been tested for the virus, but announced he had developed symptoms over the weekend.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday afternoon, he said: "Over the course of the weekend, I developed symptoms of Covid-19, therefore as a precaution and in line with Government guidance, I am self-isolating."

Mr Grundy said he arranged for a colleague to act as his proxy during a key vote relating to Brexit due to his absence from Parliament.

He said: "Last night, the colleague exercising my proxy voted in favour of the Internal Markets Bill at my request, in order to continue to respect the leave vote of my constituents, and to protect our United Kingdom."

Regarding the vote, he said: "The UK Internal Market Bill ensures that Northern Ireland remains fully part of the UK customs territory by guaranteeing that goods moving within the UK will never pay EU tariffs. The Bill also ensures that Northern Ireland’s businesses will have unfettered access to the rest of the UK without any paperwork, as per the Northern Ireland Protocol.

"Let me be clear. These measures do not prevent the UK from complying with requirements in the protocol, as per the Withdrawal Agreement. They instead exist as a fall-back option if no agreement is reached with the EU on the issues that were left to be resolved this year.

"I am disappointed that the EU has sought to interpret this section of the Withdrawal Agreement in such a perverse way, suggesting they could ban such things as food imports between the UK and NI in the event of 'No Deal'."