Lawmakers are increasingly dissatisfied with the management of the pandemic government, which caused Britain to move from a national blockade imposed in March to a patch of local measures of varying degrees of austerity, which Johnson and other ministers have struggled to explain.
The official number of virus deaths in Britain has exceeded 42,000, that of Europe, and the country is experiencing a sudden increase in new cases.
But there is little lawmakers can do about the president’s reaction because of the powers that Parliament gave him six months ago in the Coronavirus Act.
Lindsay Hoyle, independent speaker of the House of Commons, said the government had treated lawmakers with “disrespect,” with new legislation introduced unrecovered and measures released hours before it came into effect. many had to go home in the middle of their vacation when the government replaced their quarantine rules.
“I count on the government to deal with a scenario that will be absolutely unsatisfactory to me,” Hoyle said.
The powers established in the law will have to be renewed every six months and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was too early to lift them now.
“This law is mandatory to keep others safe,” Hancock told lawmakers. He said the law contained “extraordinary measures, but they remain temporary, for a limited time, and proportional to the risk we face. “
Johnson’s conservative government has faced growing complaints from its own lawmakers, who the daily life restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the virus are stifling the economy. Dozens of conservative lawmakers had threatened the insurgents who opposed the measures, but were appeased by the government’s promise that parliament would get a vote on “important” national long-term measures.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the opposition Labour Party accuses the government of spoiling the war on the virus and failing life.
“We ended up with one of the world’s mortality rates and at the breaking point of one of the most internal recessions,” said Nick Thomas-Symonds, a spokesman for Labor Home Affairs.
“Things happen the way they are,” he said, adding that Labour would not vote to end the powers. They were renewed by 330 to 24 votes in the House of Commons.
The number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations and virus deaths in Britain is emerging again, or remains well below its spring peak. 7,108 new infections were reported Wednesday and 71 virus-related deaths, the same number of deaths recorded the previous day.
Johnson said it was too early to tell if the restrictions imposed in recent weeks were working. The government has banned others from across the country from coming in teams of more than six people and banned millions of others in northern England from mingdle with others they don’t live with.
“I wish I could tell you tonight that the effect of this package has already begun to appear, but it will take time to materialize,” the prime minister said at a televised press conference.
Johnson said more difficult measures are possibly on the way, if the numbers don’t start to fall.
“If the evidence requires it, we will hesitate to take other measures that concern me are more costly than the ones we have implemented now,” he said.
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