A Tory MP is going to walk around London with a pint of milk as a protest over the coronavirus restrictions.
Sir Charles Walker said that his pint of milk will be of “symbolic importance” to him as he spoke in a debate about extending emergency coronavirus laws.
The Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged MPs to extend "essential" emergency coronavirus powers but said some of the rules could be suspended.
Mr Hancock said regulations governing the social care sector were among the measures being scrapped because of progress in dealing with the virus.
MPs will vote later to extend the Coronavirus Act until the autumn - when it is expected to pass comfortably.
Some Conservatives says the powers are "out of step" with the lockdown easing.
A group of lockdown sceptic Tory MPs is calling for a suspension of the rules - among them Sir Charles Walker, who spoke about how the legislation and milk were related.
He told the Commons: “There might even be people with their pint of milk quietly protesting that the route out of lockdown is too slow, or perhaps even too fast.
You see the point is these people can project what they like, what concern they have, on to their pint of milk.
“Now my protest as I said will be about none of those things.
"It will simply be about the price of milk and as I said for the next few days, I will have that pint on me, it will be of symbolic importance to me and at the end of the day it will be warm, it will have suppurated and I can choose whether to drink it or pour it away because it’ll be robbed of its refreshing elegance by the time it’s been in my pocket for 12 hours.
“And if I pour it away, that might cause people some concern but it doesn’t matter because it’s my pint of milk and it’s my protest and I’m not seeking people’s acclaim, endorsement or support in my protest.”
Sir Charles continued: “I heard and I listened to (Matt Hancock), this will pass, my protest will pass, the pandemic will pass and in years to come I will be sitting at my kitchen table perhaps with my wife and hopefully my children who will still want to see me and I will break away from our excited conversation about the day because I will spot that pint of milk on the table.
“And that pint shall remind me that the act of protest is a freedom, a freedom, not a right and unless you cherish freedoms every day, unless you fight for freedoms every day, they end up being taken away from you.
