COVID-19: Boris Johnson survives Tory rebellion as MPs support postponement of easing until July 19 | UK News

Coronavirus restrictions in England have been extended until July 19, as MPs voted in favor of a four-week deadline for easing the lockdown.

Boris Johnson faced a rebellion from some Tory MPs who disagreed with continuing the measures next month, but the settlement was passed by 461 votes to 60.

This means that the next and final step of unlocking will now take place in just over four weeks.

Opening debate in the House of Commons on expanding coronavirus regulations, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Delta variant, formerly known as the Indian variant “gave the virus extra legs.” .

The new variant “spreads more easily” and it takes four weeks “to put the remaining jabs in the arms of those who need them,” Hancock added.

But some Tory MPs have expressed concern over the deviation from the government’s roadmap of removing all remaining restrictions on June 21.

Former Tory Minister Mark Harper, who chairs the lockdown-skeptical Covid Recovery Group, has expressed “concern” that “we’re just going to be back here once again to expand the restrictions.”

But the health secretary said the country must learn “to live with this virus” after the four-week “break”.

His Conservative colleague Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) added that the restrictions were never proportionate “even from the start”.

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“I always thought it was wrong for them to take our liberties, even though they thought they were acting in our best interest in an emergency, but by any measure this emergency is now over and yet the freedoms are always denied, and the government …