More than two-thirds of England faces winter under the toughest level of coronavirus restrictions after large sections of the south and east were put into tier 3, prompting anguish from local leaders. Mayors and MPs from the north expressed disappointment after none of their regions were moved down, with some complaining they were being unfairly treated. However, some public health chiefs took a different view, with one expressing dismay that Herefordshire had been shifted to the least stringent measures. Asked if she was pleased about the move to tier 1, Rebecca Howell-Jones, acting director of public health in Herefordshire, said: “From a public health perspective, I would have to say no, we are disappointed by this news.” Much of a recent decrease in infection rates was seemingly due to England’s four-week lockdown rather than the subsequent restrictions, she said, telling the BBC: “I would rather we weren’t yo-yoing out of different tiers and the likely impact of increased infections occurring over the Christmas period is a concern.” With weekly Public Health England data showing coronavirus case rates rising in all but one region of England, Matt Hancock told MPs that only a handful of areas were being moved down a tier. Instead, the health secretary said, another 3.7m people in parts of southern and eastern England were moved up to tier 3, covering Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Peterborough, the whole of Hertfordshire, Surrey with the exception of Waverley, Hastings and Rother on the Kent border of East Sussex, and Portsmouth, Gosport and Havant in Hampshire. The changes comes into force on Saturday. Tier 3 already covers most of the north of England and the Midlands, London and some of the south-east, meaning almost 38m people or 68% of England’s population are under its restrictions. “We’ve come so far, we mustn’t blow it now,” Hancock told the Commons. In tier 3, hospitality businesses must close except for takeaway services and almost all mixing between households is barred. The next review is due in two weeks.
Only Bristol and north Somerset, with a population of 900,000 people, were moved down from tier 3 to 2 after infections fell, while Herefordshire was moved from tier 2 into tier 1, the lowest level of restrictions.
Conservative MPs and local leaders expressed anger at the wholesale move into the top level. “Ridiculous that we are being dragged into tier 3,” tweeted Stephen McPartland, MP for Stevenage in Hertfordshire, who voted against the current tier system. Steve Baker, deputy chair of the Covid Recovery Group of lockdown-wary Conservatives, whose Wycombe constituency in Buckinghamshire has been put in tier 3, said ministers must “urgently clarify what the criteria are for moving areas between, and especially down, the tiers”. Gerald Vernon-Jackson, the Liberal Democrat leader of Portsmouth council, said it was “bizarre” to move the city into tier 3 but not nearby areas also served by the city’s hospital. Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council, said it was “bitterly disappointing so close to Christmas” that the city had not exited the top level. Responding to Hancock in the Commons, the Conservative backbencher Sir Graham Brady, who represents Altrincham and Sale West, said infection rates were below the national average in nine out of 10 boroughs in Greater Manchester, and lower than in Bristol or Cheshire, both now in tier 2. “What exactly do we have to do to move out of tier 3?” Brady said.
The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, said his region had lower rates than London when it was first put into tier 2. He said: “One can only conclude that it’s the changed context in London and the south-east which has changed the national context which has led to everybody in the north of England staying in restrictions.” But the changes were welcomed by some local health experts. In Trafford the director of public health, Eleanor Roaf, said the decision was “unfortunately the right one”. “Do I think Greater Manchester is being punished?” she said. “No. I think really unfortunately in Greater Manchester we happen to have a lot of things that put our population at higher risk – more people in lower paid work, more people doing face-to-face work and more people in factories, perhaps in a noisy or cold environment such as food processing.”