Covid-19 Update

Chris Loder Excerpts

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The principle the hon. Lady outlines is exactly the one we are working to. The £500 self-isolation payment for those on low incomes is a very important part of our approach, and I am glad that hundreds of people in Salford have been able to be reached.

[Chris Loder (West Dorset) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend very much for his statement, and I fully understand the difficulties he faces. He will know that I am the Member for West Dorset, a rural seat whose western part is 55 miles away from the commercial centre of Bournemouth, which is the driving force of our tiering in rural Dorset. We have consistently maintained low numbers of cases, and on Friday we had just one person with covid in our county hospital. Although I understand full well that my right hon. Friend has had to consider increasing the tier in different places in the UK today, will he, for Wednesday, consider reductions to tier 1 in areas where that is appropriate, as I believe it is in Dorset?

[Matt Hancock]

I will look at this extremely closely after my hon. Friend’s entreaty. I have been noticing that in both West Dorset and Bournemouth the number of cases has been coming down. I say to everybody: stick at it, stick at the rules and do everything you can to reduce the number of transmissions. That is the most likely way of getting into tier 1.