Shapps say PM is ‘showing leadership’ despite mammoth Tory rebellion

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has defended the government’s passing of Plan B restrictions yesterday evening, in the face of a huge Conservative rebellion.

Plan B guidelines mandate the certification of vaccination or medical exemption at nightclubs, indoor settings with 500 plus attendees, outdoor settings with over 4,000 plus attendees, and any other venue with over 10,000 attendees. A positive lateral flow test can also be used to gain entry.

Working from home is encouraged but not required, and face coverings are now required by law in most indoor public places and on public transport, including taxis.

Quizzed over yesterday evening’s rebellion, in which 98 Conservative MPs voted against vaccine passports, Shapps said that while “Nobody wants to curtail freedoms…Parliament and MPs have to make the decisions on this,” describing the new rules as “sensible steps”.

“The main thing to do is to tell people to get that booster jab,” he stressed.

When asked to comment on veteran Conservative MP Geoffrey Clifton Brown’s comments that Boris Johnson “has to change” or risk a leadership challenge, Shapps sidestepped, saying that: “People are coming forward [for the booster jab] and the prime minister is showing leadership.”

He echoed the line used by several ministers in interviews this week, arguing that if measures were not brought in, people would ask in several weeks time why they did not act sooner.

In response to whether the Downing Street party allegations consisted of a breach of trust by the prime minister, Shapps said: “To be clear…the PM wasn’t at these things and he is quite rightly asking the cabinet secretary to look at them.”

“The big issue is that we should not ruin the health of everyone by detracting from the booster campaign.”

He emphasised the success of the UK’s vaccination campaign, pointing out that over 40 per cent of people were already boosted, saying “That’s the big picture”.

When asked to comment on a photograph revealed yesterday evening of London Mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey and staff gathering at Conservative Campaign Headquarters on 14 December 2020, at which point London was under Tier 2 restrictions which banned household mixing, he said it was “disgraceful”.

Shapps recounted how he himself could not visit his father in hospital for 4 months last winter.

However he said that the gathering “was not a conservative party thing but a mayoral thing”, and that disciplinary action was being taken against 4 individuals in the photograph who are employed by the Conservative party.

“We want to save lives and ensure the NHS does not get overwhelmed.”

“We will all have our own feelings…but let’s not let it destroy lives by not taking the cautions we need to take now this Christmas,” he went on.

When asked if further measures could be implemented, as they have in Scotland, the minister said “I hope not”, but that it was “certain” that parliament would be recalled to vote on any further restrictions

When asked if he has adjusted his own Christmas plans he said he had “in a small way”, and that a planned larger gathering for his father’s 90th birthday had been scaled down to immediate family to “feel safer”.