Calder Valley MP Craig Whittaker on why he voted against second lockdown

MPs voted on the measures yesterday afternoon, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Parliament are necessary to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Mr Whittaker said he did not take his decision lightly and it does not preclude his support for potential future lockdowns in the ongoing pandemic, but was unconvinced about the data in this case.

He says concerns about public health and the economy were behind his decision to vote against the proposals.

“The proposed national restrictions would have a profound effect on public health and our economy. It is now apparent that the lockdown proposals are based on disputed evidence.

“Given that lockdown would impose draconian measures with unbearable long-term consequences, I cannot with good conscience support this course of action if the data underpinning the Government’s proposal is so widely disputed,” he said.

Mr Whittaker said Prof Carl Henegan, of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, Prof David Livermore, of the University of East Anglia, and Prof Tim Spector, of King’s College, London, were some of “many” other leading scientists and medical researchers who have questioned the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance’s assertion that deaths could reach 4,000 a day in the absence of lockdown.

He praised NHS staff and said he appreciated lockdown was intended to relieve pressure, but his concerns arose from experts who had identified that lockdown measures themselves negatively affect patients receiving treatment for non-COVID illnesses, including cancer, strokes, heart attacks and dementia.

Mental health was also impacted with suicide a key issue, said Mr Whittaker, conditions which the economic impact of the pandemic exacerbated.

This was balanced with “most” people being infected having relatively mild symptoms, new medicines and treatments increasing survival chances, and businesses themselves being well-equipped to be COVID-secure, he said.

“The Government’s evidence in its current unsubstantiated form is too unclear to support a national lockdown.

“More information should be in the public domain, specifically about the assumption underlying the SAGE models,” said Mr Whittaker.