WESTMINSTER’S Conservative government is sparing the wealthiest Tory seats from the harshest lockdown measures, despite them having higher Covid rates than poorer areas.
Leaked emails seen by The Sunday Times suggest that constituencies such as Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Rishi Sunak’s Richmond (Yorks) have been spared the more severe lockdowns brought in across the north and Midlands, despite similar infection rates.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock decides which areas will be put under lockdown at weekly government meetings.
On Thursday, Professor Dominic Harrison, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s director of public health, wrote to Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) officials saying the measures imposed on his council area were “exacerbating economic inequality”.
He said: “There is now a different level of central control applied across local authorities, with some of the more economically challenged boroughs being placed into more restrictive control measures at an earlier point in their ... case rate trajectory.
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“This has the effect of exacerbating the economic inequality impacts of the virus in those areas.
“We urgently need consistency in the national strategy if the control system itself is not to add to inequality, giving an economic ‘double whammy’ to more challenged areas.”
Asked about this disparity, Johnson said: “I appreciate people want to see an iron consistency applied across the whole country.”
However, figures produced by Harrison seem to show that this is not the case.
Richmondshire in North Yorkshire, which includes Chancellor Sunak’s constituency and is one of the least deprived areas in Britain, has 73 new cases for every 100,000 people.
Though Newark and Sherwood stand at 84, represented respectively by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick and chief whip Mark Spencer, both areas have avoided lockdown.
In contrast, Wolverhampton has 56 cases per 100,000 yet remains in lockdown. Chorley, at 72, Lancaster, at 66, and Oadby and Wigston, at 63, are also subject to lockdowns.
The Tories also seem to have spared some of the “red wall” seats they claimed from Labour in the 2019 General Election.
Barrow-in-Furness has thus far avoided a lockdown despite an infection rate of 112 people per 100,000. Darlington (on 110) and Wakefield (on 72) have also avoided the restrictions placed on other areas.
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