Milton Keynes MP Ben Everitt has said that a national lockdown is 'now the right thing to do' to protect the NHS and reduce transmission of the virus.
England will enter a month-long lockdown from Thursday when people will only be allowed to leave their homes for specific reasons, such as education, work or food shopping.
The new measures will last until 2nd December.
Speaking to MKFM, Mr Everitt said: "We’ve been doing everything we can to avoid a national lockdown. But the weekly case rates, the rapid prevalence of this awful virus and the way it is spreading mean that this is now the right thing to do."
"There’s just no good time to disrupt people’s lives. And we know a national lockdown is not cost-free - not only in terms of jobs, businesses, and livelihoods, but also the impact on mental health and loneliness."
"This is why we tried every option to avoid it. But over the last few days the situation has significantly deteriorated. This is now clearly a national problem."
"While the virus is more widespread in the North West, it is doubling faster in the South East, with our own figures in MK trending upwards. And just north of us it is growing fastest in the Midlands."
"If the NHS were to be overwhelmed, it would mean non-Covid cases could be turned away from hospitals because there is no room left; critically important surgeries and treatments cancelled and many left without treatment."
"Everyone can see that the situation in the UK, and across other parts of Europe, right now is incredibly serious. Incidence rates are growing and the NHS is under increasing pressure."
"We need to take action now to protect the NHS and to reduce transmission. We must do this to curtail the exponential growth in hospitalisations and deaths."
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