Boris accused of ‘knowing he was cancelling Christmas as early as Wednesday’
Sir Charles Walker believes the PM waited until Parliament had adjourned so he could enforce Christmas rules without a vote.
A senior Conservative MP said ministers knew they were cancelling Christmas for millions on Wednesday or Thursday.
Sir Charles Walker claimed the government delayed its announcement until the House of Commons had broken up so it would not have to get the new restrictions passed with a vote.
Boris Johnson announced the country’s Christmas plans would change yesterday after he had previously urged the government to vote through his original plans to relax rules over the festive period and allow bubbles of three households to mix for five days.
The vice chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, which usually oversees the election of party leaders or votes of no confidence, said he thinks ministers knew about tier four rules before Friday.
Sir Walker told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: ‘I suspect the Government knew they were going to cancel Christmas on Wednesday and Thursday when they were still telling the House of Commons they planned to press ahead,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.
‘I think many colleagues find that extremely egregious. The Christmas period was passed into law by the House of Commons in a vote after a debate.
‘The view of most colleagues was that to be changed, another vote would be required in the House of Commons. So I suspect a decision was delayed until we were safely away back to our constituencies.’
Responding to Matt Hancock’s claims that ministers only made decisions to change Christmas rules during their briefing on Friday, Sir Walker said: ‘Well I’d have to disagree with the Secretary of State on that.’
The Boxbourne MP said he wants to see someone be held accountable.
He said: ‘I’m not asking for the government to collapse. I’m asking for a Secretary of State to take some responsibility.
‘Surely at some stage a senior Government minister has to say “I have offered my resignation to the Prime Minister’ and the Prime Minister has to say “Sadly I have had to accept it”?
‘The government in my view knew on Thursday, possibly even on Wednesday they were going to pull the plug on Christmas but they waited til Parliament had gone. That on top of everything else is a resigning matter.’
Mr Hancock told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show he had no plans to resign and said they were dealing with the crisis ‘in the best way that we possibly can’.
‘I know that Charles is very upset at the measures that we’ve had to bring in, and he has been (upset) throughout. I understand that and I understand where he’s coming from.
‘But unfortunately these measures are absolutely necessary to save lives.’
Number 10 denied Sir Walker’s accusations and said the government was told about the new strain of coronavirus on Monday and decided to take action after finding out about its high transmission rate on Friday.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said: ‘The Prime Minister was informed of the high transmission rate of the new variant of the virus and its rapid spread in the South-East on Friday afternoon. We had to take rapid action to contain the disease and slow the spread.’
London, the south and south-east of England will be under tier four restrictions until December 30 when the government is next set to review the tiers.
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