FOREST of Dean MP Mark Harper says he is concerned over the possibility of future Covid-19 restrictions following the Prime Minister’s announcement that his roadmap out of lockdown would be paused for four weeks.

The Conservative MP told Nick Ferrari on talk radio station LBC on Tuesday (June 15) that he believes the country could have moved ahead with the easing of restrictions on June 21.

Boris Johnson announced on Monday evening (June 14) that the next step of the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown would not take place until July 19 due to rising numbers of the Delta Covid-19 variant.

The extension of restrictions means that many live events, including concerts and festivals, will have to be cancelled and limits on the number of people allowed at hospitality venues will continue to be enforced.

Mr Harper told LBC: “We’re making the argument that we should have moved on June 21.

“It seems to me that we don’t know anything today that we didn’t know when the Prime Minister was telling us he was happy to move ahead on June 21.

“We do know, and this was new evidence yesterday, both of the vaccines we’re currently using, the two most in volume, are very effective against preventing people going to hospital, including, by the way, after the first dose, and we do know that everybody over 50, or everyone in the most vulnerable groups, has already been offered the second dose of the vaccine.

“I think we could’ve moved ahead perfectly safely on June 21.

“I listened to what the Prime Minister said and the problem is, all the words he’s using about ‘confidence about July 19 based on what he knows now’, those are exactly the same words he was using about June 21, so some of us I’m afraid are a bit worried that we’re actually not going to move forward on July 19.

“I asked the Health Secretary yesterday, when we get into the autumn and we see a rise in respiratory viruses, which you get at that time of year, and we see more Covid infections, could he rule out restrictions again in the autumn and winter.

“He couldn’t, and I think that’s why some of us are so worried.

“Ultimately, we’ve reduced the risk of this disease hugely by our fantastic vaccination program and as the Government says we’ve got to learn to live with it, but the problem is every time we get to that point, ministers seem to not actually want to live with it, and keep restrictions in place.

“I think the public needs to understand there’s risk involved, you can’t get zero risk, but we know that because anytime we do anything in our lives we take a calculated risk based on the benefits that we get, and I think that’s how we’ve now got to deal with Covid now that we’ve vaccinated people.

“I think that’s what we want to see from the Government”.