A CABAL of backbench Tory MPs opposed to lockdown have created a new campaign group to put pressure on the Prime Minister to change tack.
Led by former chief whip Mark Harper and Brexiteer Steve Baker, the rebels are calling themselves the Covid Recovery Group.
They plan on marshalling MPs to defeat any attempt by Boris Johnson to extend England’s coronavirus lockdown when it ends on December 2. They also urge the Government to listen to advice of different scientists
Harper said: "Last week I voted against a Conservative government for only the second time in my fifteen years in Parliament, which was not easy for a former chief whip.
"Lockdowns cost lives, whether in undiagnosed cancer treatments, deteriorating mental health, and missed A&E appointments - not to mention the impact it has on young people's education, job prospects and our soaring debts.
"The cure we're prescribing runs the risk of being worse than the disease.
"The Covid Recovery Group will play its part in helping the government to deliver an enduring strategy for living with the virus, so that we break the transmission of the disease, command public support, end this devastating cycle of repeated restrictions and start living in a sustainable way until an effective and safe vaccine is successfully rolled out across the population."
He added: "This is about ensuring that our response to Covid is rational and balanced, taking account of the non-Covid health and economic consequences of restrictions and not being driven by panic."
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, is also a member of the group.
He said: We must find a more sustainable way of leading our lives until a vaccine is rolled out, rather than throwing our prosperity away by shutting down and destroying our economy, and overlooking the untold health consequences caused by lockdowns and restrictions.
"The country is crying out for a radically different and enduring strategy for living with the virus and the Covid Recovery Group will assist the government in leading the UK out of the coronavirus crisis and into a positive future."
Other rebels on the new campaign's steering group include Adam Afriyie, Chris Green, who quit as a junior ministerial aide over lockdown measures, Philip Hollobone, Sir Robert Syms and William Wragg.
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