Tory MPs have laid into Boris Johnson in the Commons after the prime minister announced there would be a second national lockdown for England.
The country will go into a second shutdown from Thursday until December 2, with pubs, restaurants, leisure venues and non-essential shops all ordered to close.
Speaking in the Commons, the PM told MPs with the NHS due to run out of critical care beds by early December, there was “no alternative” to lockdown as UK would have faced a “medical and moral disaster”.
But several of his backbenchers spoke out against the “authoritarian” move.
Labour’s Keir Starmer, meanwhile, accused Johnson of a “catastrophic failure of leadership” for rejecting a shorter two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown when top scientists demanded one on September 21.
Reacting to news of the month-long lockdown, which MPs will vote on this Wednesday, senior Conservative backbencher Charles Walker said his constituents would “never ever forgive the political class for criminalising parents seeing their children and children seeing parents”.
Predicting 12 MPs would rebel, he told the Commons: “I will not be supporting the government legislation on Wednesday because as we drift further into an authoritarian, coercive state, the only legal mechanism left open to me is to vote against that legislation.
“That’s all we’ve got left. If my constituents protest they get arrested.”
Tory MP for Shipley Philip Davies accused Johnson of a “failed strategy of lockdowns and arbitrary restrictions”, which were “collapsing the economy”.
He added: “Can the prime minister, therefore, tell me how many collapsed businesses and how many job losses he and his government believe are a price worth paying to continue perusing this failed strategy of lockdowns and arbitrary restrictions?”
Rebel ringleader and chairman of the powerful 1922 committee of Tory MPs, Graham Brady, also called for a full impact assessment, saying the economy will be battered by the new lockdown.
He said: “Can I ask (Boris Johnson) before Wednesday to publish a full impact assessment setting out the cost of the lockdown in terms of jobs that will be lost, businesses that will fail and the enormous toll on people’s mental and other aspects of their health, the lives that will be lost as a result of lockdown, as well as those that we hope to save?”
Johnson accepted the country had “already sustained” economic damage and that “many projections” cast ahead to further job losses.
Appealing for MPs’ support, he added: “But against them, we must set the tragic loss of life that would inevitably ensue if this House failed to act on Wednesday.”
Tory MP for Harrow East Bob Blackman asked for the PM to confirm how the government would judge whether to lift lockdown.
He said: “Most people will say we are prepared, obviously, to do the right thing in order to eliminate and defeat this virus – but could he set out the criteria that he will use to ensure that we can come out of this partial lockdown on December 2?”
Johnson promised MPs that the new restrictions will end on December 2 “whatever happens”.
He added: “The R is above 1 but it is not much above 1, it is not much above 1.
“And if we work hard between now and 2nd December I believe that we can get it below 1.
“But whatever happens these restrictions end on 2nd December and any further measures will be a matter for this House of Commons.”
With Labour backing the new lockdown and the number of rebels not yet able to threaten Johnson, the government is expected to win the vote on Wednesday.
Starmer called on the PM to use the four-week shutdown to fix NHS Test and Trace.
He said: “The reality is that the two pillars of the prime minister’s strategy, the £12bn track and trace and regional restrictions have not only failed to stop the second wave, they’ve been swept away by it.
“At every stage, the prime minister has been too slow, behind the curve. At every stage, he has pushed away challenge, ignored advice and put what he hoped would happen above what is happening.
“At every stage, he’s over-promised and under-delivered. Rejecting the advice of his own scientists over 40 days was a catastrophic failure of leadership and of judgment.”
During the lockdown, schools, colleges and universities will remain open, Johnson said.
He also said England will return to a tiered system “based on the data” when the latest lockdown measures end next month.