Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has warned that the British government is acting like an “elected dictatorship” passing coronavirus laws without parliamentary scrutiny.
Mr Farage also expressed concern that there is no effective opposition in the House of Commons, with the Labour Party “teaming up” with the Conservative government and preparing “to deny us our basic freedoms in the name of the greater good”.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced further restrictions on Britons, putting a 10 p.m. curfew on the hospitality industry, while widening the enforcement of mask-wearing. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Wednesday that if the measures did not work to stop the spread of the Chinese coronavirus, the government might order a second national lockdown.
Writing in the Daily Express on Wednesday, Mr Farage said that he was “struck” by how “this Conservative government, using their emergency powers, have been so keen to interfere in our day to day lives since the pandemic began”.
“Boris and his Government are doing as they please without any opposition and we should be very concerned. It is clear to me that our civil liberties are now at risk by an administration that increasingly seems to act like an elected dictatorship,” the Brexit Party leader said.
“I am sure I am not alone in saying that we have now reached the point where the cure has become worse than the disease itself.
“Nobody voted for this. It’s up to us all to fight against this tyranny,” Farage concluded.
The Brexit Party leader is not alone in voicing concern over the threats the emergency measures make to Britons’ rights.
Earlier this month, Conservative MP Steve Baker criticised Mr Johnson’s “draconian” lockdown rules that banned gatherings of more than six people, saying: “It’s time for us to actually start living like a free people, not subjecting ourselves to constantly shifting legal requirements.”
Former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption went further after the first set of restrictions were put in place in March. He warned: “This is what a police state is like — it is a state in which the government can issue orders or express preferences with no legal authority, and the police enforce minister’s wishes.”
This week, Chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady criticised ministers for getting the habit of “ruling by decree” rather than engaging in parliamentary debate and voting.
Sir Graham told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The government has got into the habit, in respect of the coronavirus issue, of ruling by decree without the usual debate, discussion and votes in Parliament that we would expect on any other matter,” he said.
He added: “The British people aren’t used to being treated as children.
“We expect in this country to have a parliamentary democracy where our elected representatives on our behalf can require proper answers to these not just have some imposed.”
MPs are set to vote next week on whether to extend the time-limited law. Civil liberties advocate and veteran journalist Peter Hitchens remarked on Wednesday, “Despotic police powers, suspended elections, bans on public gatherings. Pinochet’s Chile? Erdogan’s Turkey? No, it’s here,” and urged Britons to contact their local MPs, asking them to vote to repeal the act.