A Labour MP has said the party’s decision not to oppose the government’s new Covid tier restrictions made her feel ill, and that about 20 colleagues had wanted to vote against the measures. Emma Lewell-Buck, the MP for South Shields, said she would break the party whip in a Commons vote on the new coronavirus rules later on Tuesday, even though it made her feel uncomfortable to do so.
Keir Starmer has ordered Labour MPs to abstain from voting either for or against the measures, meaning they are likely to pass despite a sizeable Tory rebellion that Boris Johnson is struggling to contain. Several Labour MPs told the Guardian on Tuesday that while they were minded to vote against the tier restrictions, they would follow the party line or had not yet decided. Andrew Gwynne, the Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, said he would vote against the measures. His constituency straddles Stockport and Tameside, which have infection rates of 170 per 100,000 and 178 per 100,000, respectively. Like the rest of Greater Manchester, his constituency has been in a local lockdown for four months, with all household mixing indoors banned. A shadow cabinet minister in an area with a relatively low infection rate said they had pushed Starmer to abstain, a decision that has left several party colleagues feeling uncomfortable. Lewell-Buck said: “I felt a bit ill when I saw that we’re going to be abstaining because I knew that I’d have to do what I felt was right by my community and that would be vote against. I knew I’d have to break the whip today and that’s an uncomfortable place to be.” The MP, whose South Shields constituency has been under some of England’s strictest lockdown rules since September, said the hospitality industry was “going to the wall” and that businesses needed more support. “There comes a point where if you abstain or you vote for it, you’re saying that you’re okay with the status quo and you’re okay with the approach – and I’m not,” she said. “My hospitality industry in South Shields is all going to the wall, yet there’s no evidence really to prove that infection rates are highest in hospitality.” Cat Smith, the MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood and the shadow minister for voter engagement and young people, said: “When I spoke to my whip over the weekend I was very clear I wouldn’t vote for [the restrictions]. I agree with the principle of restrictions [but] disagree with the application when it comes to my constituency.” She said the infection rate in Lancaster was low, but bed occupancy in the local hospital had remained at 95% for several weeks. She stressed that that figure had not yet been validated but that she had been told by sources at the local University hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS foundation trust that bed occupancy was now at 98%. “We are not out of the woods yet,” she said. Lancaster has an infection rate of 115 per 100,000 people, according to the seven-day rolling average, far below the English average of 168 cases per 100,000. Kate Osborne, the Labour MP for Jarrow, said she was leaning towards voting against the tier restrictions but would make a decision after the Commons debate. She said she would have voted against the measures had Labour given MPs a free vote: “The reason I’m even contemplating voting against this is because it just doesn’t have the [financial] support in place and I think that’s unfortunate. “I do worry that if we abstain on certain votes like this then is there enough pressure to actually make the government put in place some of the things that are needed around support packages?” Osborne said her mailbag was full of constituents wanting her to vote against the new tier restrictions, which are due to come into force on Wednesday morning, but that there would be others who supported them.
Richard Burgon, the Labour MP for Leeds East, described the government’s approach as “recklessly inadequate” and confirmed he would vote against the measures.