LABOUR admitted yesterday it would enforce repeated national Covid lockdowns on England without an exit plan.
In a move that would lay waste to the economy, frontbencher Rachel Reeves said the party would support rolling shutdowns.
It would mean pubs, restaurants and bars being forced to close on and off until a vaccine is available.
Asked on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show if she would back rolling lockdowns, Ms Reeves said: “If that is what is needed then that is the approach that has to be taken.”
She added: “At the moment it feels like we’re going into a tunnel and you’ve no idea where the end of that tunnel is.” Leader Sir Keir Starmer had tried to turn the screw on Boris Johnson last week by demanding a single two or three-week national lockdown.
He said the “circuit breaker” closure would dampen down infection rates and help “reset” the war on Covid.
And he slammed the Government’s localised approach.
However, he had refused to admit Labour would back repeated national lockdowns, insisting it would be a one-time emergency measure. But that was contradicted in the comments made by Ms Reeves.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said the move “concerned” him, adding: “We’d have repeated national circuit breakers without any criteria for when we enter and exit.”
Chris Clarkson, in a joint letter with four other Northern Tory MPs to Manchester’s mayor, called it “alarming”.
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