Conservative lockdown-sceptic MP Steve Baker has accused Boris Johnson’s government of creating a “miserable dystopia” in pushing for new coronavirus restrictions.
Despite Mr Baker being one of up to 100 Conservative MPs reportedly planning to rebel and vote against the new measures, the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) deputy chairman has warned that the passing legislation was already a “foregone conclusion” because the “useless” Labour Party opposition is planning to vote with the Government.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a tightening of coronavirus rules, effectively introducing the much-threatened Plan B measures of expanding the mask mandate, advising employees to work from home, and for the first time, introducing Covid passes in England.
Boris Johnson is facing a rebellion on Tuesday’s vote, including from leading backbencher Steve Baker MP, who told Trevor Phillips on Sky News on Sunday: “I will vote against vaccine passports, I will vote against extending the face mask mandate, I’ll vote against mandatory vaccinations as a condition of NHS employment.”
“I think what we’re doing now is creating a miserable dystopia into which we’re going forward,” Mr Baker warned.
British news outlets keeping a tally of Tory MPs preparing to vote against or abstain from Tuesday’s vote have swelled in recent days, with The Spectator publishing a list of 77 names, while PoliticsHome estimates the figure is close to 100.
However, as Baker noted, the measures passing in the House of Commons is “a foregone conclusion because our useless Opposition in Name Only will continue to support the government, however authoritarian they are”.
Boris Johnson appeared to issue a veiled threat to citizens that failing to “get boosted” as a matter of urgency could see their “freedoms” and “way of life” taken away in an address to the nation. https://t.co/4eKS5XrjkN
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 13, 2021
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who only in April called vaccine passports un-British, will be voting with Boris Johnson, claiming in comments to the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday: “So, I’m not supporting the Prime Minister on Tuesday, I’m supporting our NHS, and I’m supporting the public in relation to this pandemic.”
On the weekend, Mr Baker relaunched the Conservative Way Forward pressure group to promote freedom and personal responsibility.
“Pretty soon we’re going to have to start learning why it is that we’ve always believed in this country that freedom and the rule of law matters. That’s really why I’m relaunching Conservative Way Forward. We’ve got to show there is a movement for that frame of mind, because if we don’t, the Conservative Party will continue to drift into authoritarianism and I simply cannot stand idly by while that happens,” Mr Baker told Sky News on Sunday.
“I am so very concerned that what is happening here is that we are being treated by the government, by the health establishment, as automata who can’t manage to decide for themselves that it’s a good idea to wear a mask in an enclosed space. I’m certainly capable of doing it freely… Really, we do need to think very carefully now about what we wish to become. In society are relationships healthy when they’re voluntary, or do they all need to be coerced? This is a fundamental question,” he added.
BoJo's Press Chief Spoke at 'Party' Govt Claims Didn't Happen: Reports https://t.co/gdAldMiRve
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 11, 2021
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