Andover’s MP has said that Covid rule-breakers are “increasingly likely” to be fined.
Speaking to the BBC today MP Kit Malthouse said, “We are urging the small minority of people who aren’t taking this seriously to do so now, and [are illustrating] to them that if they don’t they are much more likely to get fined by the police.”
It follows Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick’s comment in the Times that it is “preposterous” that anyone could be unaware of the need to follow the coronavirus lockdown rules.
The UK’s most senior police officer said that Police were still finding people breaking the rules, despite high rates of the virus and clear laws that ban social gatherings.
Kit Malthouse told the BBC Breakfast programme that the British people have a “duty” to make this lockdown “the last one”.
He added, “These current measures should – in theory, if we all stick by them – be enough to drive the numbers down so that we can start to move through the gears of tiers from mid-February.”
When asked if tighter restrictions were on the way, the Policing Minister said that ministers were “on tenterhooks”, watching the daily figures for Covid deaths, new cases and hospital admissions, as rules continue to be kept under review.
Virus figures yesterday Monday showed a further 529 people had died within 28 days of a positive test in the UK; another 46,169 cases were reported.
The data also shows that there are more than 32,200 people in UK hospitals with coronavirus.
