Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said that the British government will not commit to an “arbitrary” date to end lockdown, after a group of Conservatives has called for restrictions to be lifted after a large proportion of Britons have been vaccinated against coronavirus.
Mr Raab, who also as First Secretary of State is the de facto deputy prime minister, made the remarks in response to the lockdown sceptic group of Tory MPs the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) calling for the lockdown to be ended in April, as by that time everyone over the age of 50 would have been offered the first dose of a vaccine. Those over 70 have now all been vaccinated, as well as those in other key at-risk groups.
The foreign secretary told Sky News on Sunday that while it was the government’s aim to have offered the vaccine to those groups before the end of April, “I don’t think you can set an arbitrary target and not be evidence-led — which is why the review point on the 22nd of February is very important.”
The senior minister said other measures could still be on track to be lifted in line with the government’s latest plans, including schools preparing to open for March 8th. The Johnson administration recommitted to the “review point” next week, as it would give schools a fortnight to prepare for reopening.
Raab said that the government was “on course” to hit the first milestone of offering the first dose to the four most vulnerable groups by Monday, with every adult expected to have had their first shot by September.
“That is the roadmap we set out. We need to be evidence-based in analysing our progress towards it,” Mr Raab said.
“We’re not taking what feels to me a slightly arbitrary commitment without reviewing the impact the measures have had on transmission and the hospital admissions of the virus,” he reiterated.
The CRG, led by Mark Harper and Steve Baker, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on behalf of its 63-strong membership of MPs to call for an end of restrictions by the end of April on grounds that if all groups over the age of 50 have been offered at least the first dose of the vaccine, then there would be “no justification” with continuing all measures. After March 8th, when the most vulnerable have been vaccinated and protected, Britons should see the beginning of the end of lockdown, the letter said.
“All restrictions remaining after 8 March should be proportionate to the ever-increasing number of people we have protected,” it said, according to The Guardian.
“The burden is on ministers to demonstrate the evidence of effectiveness and proportionality with a cost-benefit analysis for each restriction, and a roadmap for when they will be removed.”
Reacting to Mr Raab twice calling the April deadline “arbitrary”, CRG Chairman Mr Harper asserted that “They’re not random, arbitrary timetables.”
“It’s linked very much to the rollout of the vaccine. Once you have vaccinated the top nine groups who represent 99 per cent of the people who have sadly died from Covid and about 80 per cent of those who are seriously ill, I don’t think there is a justification for these draconian restrictions,” he told Times Radio.
When Prime Minster Johnson announced England’s third lockdown at the beginning of January, he was reticent to announce an end-date, putting into law measures that could last until the end of March before renewal. Since then, the prime minister and others have suggested that it was too early to say if restrictions could be lifted by Spring or even Summer, with one health expert recently claiming that some form of coronavirus measures could be in place for “years”.
Writing in The Telegraph on Sunday, CRG Deputy Chairman Mr Baker said that as the risk from coronavirus is “diminishing” as Britain continues to successfully roll out its vaccine programme, “we must focus on how we open up society in the short run.
“The priority is getting all pupils back into school by 8 March, opening hospitality by Easter and a free life by 1 May once we have vaccinated groups 1-9. Then we must ensure that any future restrictions undergo proper analysis and scrutiny.”
Baker warned: “We cannot live in a society where lockdowns are perpetually on the table, in fear that a minister might, without notice, impose restrictions that cost people their jobs, their livelihoods, their ability to date, to marry, to visit family at home and abroad, or to invest in their futures.”
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