Opinion: ‘Why I voted against Covid tiers’

On Tuesday, I voted against the new COVID Tier regulations. It wasn’t an easy decision. I strongly support the Prime Minister, so I trudged through the ‘No’ lobby with heavy legs.

The pandemic has saddled the Government with an incredibly difficult job. I know Ministers are doing their best, faced with competing demands that are almost impossible to reconcile.

They face uncertain, changing evidence. They receive strongly-worded advice from scientists, which must be given due weight.

They are guaranteed to upset large numbers of people, whatever they do.

I know all this, which is why I reluctantly voted for the second lockdown. But this week, I reached my limit.

There can be no justification for the ‘substantial meal’ rule for pubs. COVID doesn’t go away because you have a bowl of chips in front of you.

The debate about scotch eggs would be amusing, if the survival of local jobs and Peterborough’s pubs didn’t depend on it. I can’t look the landlords or staff of our pubs in the eye and defend this.

There is no clear evidence base for this rule, or for many of the others. Why should we just assume they work? They certainly aren’t fair and the absence of any proper analysis of their economic impact is alarming.

Coronavirus is deadly and must be contained. Social distancing is horrible, but necessary. That shouldn’t mean anything goes, no matter how questionable the restriction, for months on end.

Our City is too important for me to take that attitude. With no pleasure at all, I voted against the new rules.

My conscience is clear. Nor was I alone – 55 of my Conservative colleagues did the same and others abstained.

Fortunately, the week had a brighter moment. The independent MHRA regulator approving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is a real breakthrough.

The UK is the first country to authorise a COVID vaccine. It means staff and residents in care homes can start being protected next week, followed by NHS and care workers and those over the age of 80.

It’s real moment for celebration. The Government had already secured 40 million doses, which is enough to vaccinate 20 million people.

I know some people have concerns about a vaccine. Let me stress what has happened: we have reached this point because of massive extra funding, lots of new volunteers for the trials and prioritisation by regulators.

We may have got there first, but no steps in the standard processes have been missed.

It’s happened because of the huge effort made, including by our Government.

This is a UK success.

Scepticism about the Tier rules shouldn’t turn into scepticism about vaccines. They are safe and they work.

Although we might need a scotch egg with our pints, the ‘anti-vaxxers’ who try scare people on social media have scotch eggs for brains. I know which I prefer.

As has always been the case in our country, vaccination will be voluntary. But we still need everyone in Peterborough to take part, when it gets to their turn. Otherwise, the pandemic will keep going.

Thankfully, Peterborough can now get this done and get this over.