Comment for local press on 3rd National Lockdown:

“I’ve not always been able to lend my support to the Government restrictions because I have felt them to be disproportionate when taking into account our local hospital capacity and Covid rates versus the wider damage to health, society and people’s livelihoods of repeated lockdowns with no end in sight. Using the same proportionality test, my voting position changed with the last vote which moved East Sussex in to Tier 4. With the vaccine then being in play, the presence of the new highly contagious variant in our area and the sheer Covid patient numbers putting the hospital system under severe pressure, I voted for those extra restrictions. I have done so again for the latest national lockdown.

I regret it hugely, and have particular concerns for our pupils being unable to attend school, but I view this as one last major effort to protect lives, enable us to get the vaccine out and to get back towards normality. In Parliament, I put it to the Prime Minister that every vaccine jab in the arm should be viewed as a pupil being able to return to the classroom. I then highlighted the lack of vaccine coverage for Rural Rother. I am delighted that, after much work from many, we are now going to have the vaccination delivered in Etchingham in addition to the existing sites in Bexhill and Hastings. This is a good start but it’s vital we start delivering in greater numbers so we can vaccinate those at risk. Only then will we all be able to get our liberties and lives back.

My message to residents is this - you have done so much already, it’s frustrating to be asked to do more but this one last collective push can get us our freedom back.”