More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Two MPs in Kent have voted against a second lockdown.
Pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops will be forced to close their doors again tomorrow after parliament voted by 516 to 38 for the new restrictions.
KMTV reports
But rebel Tory MPs defied the whip and voted against the measures - including two from Kent.
Craig Mackinlay, who represents South Thanet , and Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson refused to support the new measures.
The Prime Minister tried to reassure parliament the measures should enable shops and businesses to reopen in time for the run-up to Christmas - lasting until December 2.
Mr Mackinlay was one of 32 rebel Tories to oppose the restrictions.
"We've already seen flip-flopping under the earlier published proposals that off-sales and microbreweries can now continue selling beer outside," he said in parliament today.
"Whereas always the supermarkets could have sold us much as they liked. This I'm afraid is at the heart of muddled thinking."
We then spoke about what he brands the "Wilkinsons conundrum".
He added: "How can it be that they can continue to sell essential and non-essential and yet the independent shop next door that sells just some of that non-essential stuff that Wilkinsons can continue to sell will be illegal for them to continue?
I'm being asked to spend £50 billion extra today or perhaps even more.
"There is no data on what this means for other health issues.
"There is no assessment on what this means to families not able to see grandchildren or to see off loved ones in their final days."
Opening the debate, Boris Johnson said that without action now, the chances of the NHS being in “extraordinary trouble” by December were “very, very high”.
“Let me be clear that this existential threat to our NHS comes not from focusing too much on coronavirus, as is sometimes asserted, but from not focusing enough,” he said.
“We simply cannot reach the point where our National Health Service is no longer there for everyone."
Analysis from KentOnline political editor Paul Francis
If it was not exactly the right gift to mark Boris Johnson's first year as prime minister, it was undeniably one he will have appreciated.
MPs rallied behind his plan for a four-week lockdown to stamp down on Infection rates and to minimise the risk of hospitals becoming overwhelmed during the second wave of the Corona crisis.
A cause for celebration? Not exactly.
There was a rebellion from his own ranks but it proved a modest one. With Labour MPs also supporting the lockdown, there was never any real doubt about the outcome, which will have relieved Mr Johnson.
But the revolt, while small, represented an unwelcome warning shot across the bows from MPs who have been genuinely dismayed that the government has been, in their eyes, too ready to take steps that have harmed businesses- especially small ones - and to trample all over peoples’ civil liberties.
The discontented MPs were also unhappy the government had raised the spectre of hospitals being overwhelmed to justify a second lockdown but had done so without any detailed data to support the plan.
These misgivings were articulated by the South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay who took a swing at the government in an uncompromising verbal assault.
He picked apart the government’s plans, saying they were nonsensical, lacked detail and was caustic about the claims that a vaccine could soon be available.
His passionate intervention concluded with a stirring declaration that he would not take the neutral path of abstaining but as he was “paid to have an opinion” would be voting against the measures.
The Prime Minister’s ominous forecast that hospitals would be overwhelmed if no action was taken undoubtedly will have focused MPs on the possibility that if they did not support the lockdown and their local hospital did indeed struggle to cope, they might be in the firing line from constituents.
So, Boris Johnson can celebrate with a win and is probably glad that the outcome went his way.
But it is a measure of the government’s difficulties that a small but significant number of MPs - including two former leaders - joined a revolt.
And there is privately some concern that the public’s willingness to abide by the second lockdown will be tested to its limits over the next four months.
