Conservative MP for Rother Valley Alexander Stafford yesterday raised the need to ensure any exit strategy from the Government’s Covid-19 lockdown should provide clarity and flexibility for businesses to open at different points across the country depending on local factors and to continue supporting the NHS.
Alexander asked his question to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, following the PM’s statement to the House outlining the Government’s cautious roadmap for easing lockdown restrictions.
The Prime Minister responded to Alexander’s question and also congratulated Alexander on the recent birth of his new baby daughter, Persephone.
Alexander asked the Prime Minister the following:
“May I first thank the Prime Minister for his clear statement and for the support and guidance he has given us all across Rother Valley? It is clear that this Government are taking a balanced and pragmatic approach that ultimately will save lives. Can the Prime Minister confirm, however, that this plan is both dynamic and flexible enough to ensure that we can reopen different businesses at different times and in different locations, so that we can kick-start our economy as soon as possible, and that only with a strong economy can we have a strong NHS?”
The Prime Minister’s response to Alexander was as follows:
“My hon. Friend is entirely right. I congratulate him, by the way, on the birth of his daughter, Persephone—an appropriate names, perhaps, for a country beginning to take steps out from the darkness. As we take these steps, we will of course be flexible. As I said just now to the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), we will make sure that, where there are local flare-ups, where we see the disease taking off again, we will not hesitate to put on the brakes. My hon. Friend is absolutely right, however, that to have a strong NHS, as we must, we do and we will, we need a strong economy as well.”
Full exchange can be found here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-05-11/debates/D92692B5-165B-4ACB-BC97-4C3F25D726EE/Covid-19Strategy#contribution-432E03FC-8A1D-449D-86C7-2B01AD8DBB98 and the video here:https://twitter.com/Alex_Stafford/status/1259880170317545472
