British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street wearing a face mask on his way to Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) at the House of Commons in London, England, on October 14, 2020.
David Cliff | NurPhoto via Getty Images
LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday defended his government’s decision to impose a second lockdown in England, saying there was “no alternative” but to take further action.
On Saturday, Johnson announced England would go into a one-month lockdown lasting from Nov. 5 until Dec. 2. Under the new restrictions, people will be ordered to stay at home unless it’s for essential purposes, including education, medical reasons, or to shop for groceries.
Pubs, bars and restaurants must close except for takeout and delivery. Some industries where working from home isn’t possible — like construction and manufacturing — will be allowed to continue operating. The restrictions only apply to England; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland enforce their own rules.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Johnson said: “The modeling presented by our scientists suggests that without action we could see up to twice as many deaths over the winter as we saw in the first wave. Faced with these latest figures, there is no alternative but to take further action at a national level.”
The U.K. recently passed 1 million confirmed cases, with deaths rising to 46,807 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It reported a record 26,707 infections on Oct. 21, however the number of deaths is far from where it was during the peak of the outbreak in April.
British lawmakers are set to vote on the fresh lockdown measures on Wednesday. Parliament is widely expected to pass the proposals thanks to support from the opposition Labour Party, which has criticized the government for not acting sooner.
Previously, the government had looked to curb rising numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths with a three-tier system of local alert levels, with Tier 3 being the highest. The system has led to confusion and frustration across the country.
‘No apology whatever’
“I make absolutely no apology whatever for doing my level best — our level best as a government — to avoid going back into a national lockdown,” Johnson said Monday, pushing back on claims that the government had moved too slowly and that its contact-tracing program was “broken.”
He said Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer “should stop continuously knocking” the government’s track-and-trace scheme “because we need people to self-isolate.”
Johnson said Members of Parliament (MPs) would have a chance to vote on further restrictions when the second lockdown ends on Dec. 2.
To cushion the economic blow of another lockdown, the U.K. government will extend a program that financially assists furloughed employees until December.
Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said Monday that the government would also increase financial support for the self-employed to 80% of their trading profits this month, up from a previous cap of 40%. He added that the deadlines for applying to the government’s pandemic loan schemes had been further extended until Jan. 31, 2021.
All eyes will be on the Bank of England later in the week as it holds its latest monetary policy meeting. While it’s not expected to push interest rates into negative territory like others have done, the central bank has weighed such a measure and even wrote to banks recently to check whether they can handle rates falling below zero.
