Black Country and Staffordshire MPs urge caution in move to free up region's economy
Lockdown measures must be eased to free the West Midlands economy and its people, MPs said today.
But any chance of widespread changes were dashed after Boris Johnson said he would be exercising “maximum caution”.
The Prime Minister is expected to announce his strategy for phase two of the shutdown on Sunday after talks yesterday.
New measures under consideration are believed to include allowing people to spend more time outside providing they stay two metres apart and staggering shifts in the workplace.
People are likely to be asked to wear face masks when using public transport and the furlough scheme may be reduced in a bid to encourage more people to get back to work.
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MPs across the Black Country and Staffordshire today spoke of the need to jump start the region’s economy, which had been one of the country’s fastest growing but is expected to be one of the hardest hit by the lockdown.
But concerns were also raised that any loosening of social distancing measures could lead to a devastating second wave of the disease.
John Spellar, the Labour MP for Warley, said: “It is important we get the economy back moving, because poverty kills as well.
“We also have to remember that a lot of people have been working all the way through this – those in the emergency services, in care homes and in food manufacture, sales and deliveries. It has got to be properly planned and employers must be under strict instructions to protect their workforce. We should also be taking a careful look at what other countries are doing and see what works.”
Lichfield’s Conservative MP Michael Fabricant said he expected the Government to ease up on the restrictions “slightly”, because there had been “growing pressure to do so”.
“It was for that reason that the Government didn’t introduce lockdown as soon as some people would have liked, as we may have to have eased up before the peak of the infection,” he added.
“However, I would be very concerned if social distancing were not maintained, as this is a highly infectious disease and without a vaccine that would be playing with fire.”
Walsall South MP Valerie Vaz, the Shadow Leader of the House, said the country needed to “proceed with caution” due to its high death rate.
She said she was concerned that full scientific evidence had not been provided that it was right to ease the restrictions, and called for “proper notice and timetables” to be given of phased openings.
“Many people who observed the lockdown magnificently still have concerns,” she said.
And Stuart Anderson, the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, said while it was crucial that businesses got back up and running, it should not come at the expense of human life.
“Yes, we need to restart the economy, but we need to make sure that everything we do is about saving lives and looking after people’s health,” he said.
Mr Anderson said he hoped to see a “tapered” system for furlough introduced that would “ease people off it and back into work”.
Over the past seven days unions have been in discussions with local manufacturing companies over restarting production, with JLR set to reopen its i54 plant in Wolverhampton next week.
Meanwhile MPs have urged caution over plans to reopen schools. Concerns have been raised that prolonged closures could lead to disadvantaged pupils falling further behind, while an increase in the number of people returning to work will lead to childcare issues for some families.
However, there are fears that reopening schools too soon could lead to a spike in cross infections.
