A Leicester MP has said she believes a local lockdown is necessary for her constituency where hundreds of coronavirus cases have been recorded in the past two weeks.
According to Public Health England data, almost 3,000 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in the East Midlands city since the start of the coronavirus epidemic. Of these, 866 cases were reported in the last two weeks.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Labour MP for Leicester East Claudia Webbe called for a local lockdown - which would be the first in England - to be implemented.
It came as Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said he was frustrated that a 9am meeting with Government officials to discuss the potential lockdown was cancelled.
Sir Peter claimed he received an email in the middle of the night making the cancellation.
Ms Webbe said: “There are significant worries and significant problems in terms of inequalities and high levels of poverty that I’m concerned about.
“That is the context in which this Covid-19 is operating in. So I’m very concerned, and I really do believe that where the data allows we need to ensure that we engage in processes to protect lives, and I think we need to go into therefore more localised lockdown to protect lives and ensure that we can address this virus.
“The Government hasn’t reassured us. Thus far, the messages and the communication from the Government have been unclear, and it has been difficult, and I really don’t understand what communities are meant to follow.”
Ms Webbe added that the Government’s lifting of lockdown restrictions on July 4 while her constituency was seeing a new spike in cases would be “reckless”.
She said countrywide lockdown measures introduced in late March should be re-introduced in Leicester, such as asking people to stay in their homes as much as possible and the two-metre social distancing restriction.
“We’re talking about a situation where we need a lockdown, but on July 4, almost a week on, we’re talking about the easing of lockdown," she said.
“I think this is reckless when you’ve got a situation in Leicester where 25 per cent of the cases (in the city) have happened in the last two weeks.”
Asked if the Leicester reports were accurate on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday, Ms Patel said: “Well, that is correct.”
She added: “There will be support going into Leicester and in fact the Health Secretary was in touch with many of us over the weekend explaining some of the measures, the support on testing, resources that will go into the local authority as well.”
But Sir Peter told LBC that more testing data is needed before deciding whether to implement a local lockdown in Leicester.
He argued the information was “key to determining what intervention is needed” to respond to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases.
“If it is decided that a local lockdown is needed the city council currently has no powers to implement this, and there would need to be extensive discussion around the area to be locked down, including whether this extends beyond the city boundaries,” he added.
