A number of businesses and constituents have written to me in recent weeks concerned that this November’s blanket lockdown, unlike the one earlier this year, is arbitrarily damaging parts of the country that better suit being under a tiered system such as our own.

As someone who worked in business and ran my own business before being elected as your local MP, I get this.

While we need to keep in mind that Covid is a deadly disease that we must keep at bay, the cure must not be causing more harm than the disease itself.

This is why, ahead of the Government announcing the next steps in the next few days, I have written to the Prime Minister along with 70 of my Conservative colleagues in the House of Commons setting out why we cannot support further Covid restrictions unless the Government demonstrates those restrictions will have an impact on slowing the transmission of Covid and save more lives than they cost.

The burden is on the Government to demonstrate the necessity & proportionality of each restriction.

The Government must give equal regard to other lethal killers like cancer, dementia & heart disease, mental health, & all the health implications of poverty & falling GDP.