THE SPEAKER of the House of Commons and several Conservative MPs have berated the UK Government for planning to hold a press conference on new coronavirus plans before telling elected politicians.
Peter Bone, Sir Edward Leigh and Sir Ian Duncan Smith raised concerns that the Prime Minster plans to hold a televised briefing at 6pm today to announce whether he will delay the easing of further restrictions.
It comes after numerous reports over the weekend, speculating that the government will not go ahead with its plans to remove all restrictions in England on June 21 due to a rise in the so-called Delta variant of the virus.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will update MPs at 8.30pm – hours after Mr Johnson gives his televised news conference.
When asked about the arrangements, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, enraged, said it was “completely unacceptable” and said he and MPs had been “misled” by the Government.
He said: “This House needs to know first.
“I find it totally unacceptable that once again, once again, we see Downing Street running roughshod over members of parliament.
“We're not accepting it, and I'm at the stage where I'm beginning to look for other avenues if they're not going to treat this house seriously.
“I think it's time for me to have a meeting with the Prime Minister to actually put on the record, here now, but with him, that this House matters.”
The speaker later added, in response to a question from Mr Duncan-Smith, that he had been told no decision had been taken on the revisions and said he had been “misled”.
Sir Lindsay said he would welcome a statement from Downing Street prior to the 6pm press conference, adding: “I was told no decisions had been taken.
“That's why I'm more shocked to know there is an embargoed list of what's going to happen to this country without this House knowing.
“I was told no decisions had been taken, that no decisions would be taken until the Cabinet meets.
“The fact is that I am being misled. This House is being misled. It is not acceptable.”
Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, added that it would have been “perfectly possible for the Prime Minister to come to this chamber at 3.30pm, now, to inform Parliament what was going on” adding: “I quite understand that if you're the Prime Minister it's much easier to have a few patsy questions from Laura Kuenssberg and colleagues for a whole hour than being grilled by MPs.”
Asked about the statements earlier, a Downing Street spokesman said he was unaware of the remarks.
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