Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he will back the new national lockdown in England.
When asked on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday if the new restrictions were what he had in mind when he called for another lockdown, Sir Keir said: “Yes, it is what we had in mind and we will back it.
“It was inevitable we needed a national set of restrictions. That’s why I called for it.”
He said that it was now a race against time to ramp up the national vaccination programme.
“We are in a race against time now. We have got a contract with the British people to say these are tough restrictions, in return for that the Government has got to roll out the vaccination programme at speed and accelerate that.
“This is a huge challenge and I think we need to pull together.”
– ‘Closing schools is the very last resort’
Asked why he sent children back to school knowing that they could act as spreaders of the disease, Mr Gove said:
“Closing schools is really the very last resort.
“None of us wanted to do it.
“We all know how important it is for children get the best education that they can.”
He added that faced with the news of going into the most severe alert level, the Government had no choice.
