Mark Harper, the chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said ‚reasonable people‘ will now be questioning why Mr Johnson does not speed up the easing of restrictions.
Meanwhile, the CRG‘s Steve Baker echoed a similar sentiment as he said ‚the time has come for this dark chapter in our history to come to an end‘ amid fears of extending the Government‘s draconian Covid powers.
Rob Halfon, the Tory chairman of the Education Select Committee, told The Telegraph: „We just need to make sure March 8 is signed in blood, not just a line in the sand.“ Mark Harper, the chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said: „It‘s crucial we don‘t backslide on this.“
The Prime Minister has promised to get children back in classrooms by March 8 as part of his ‚route map‘ out of lockdown, which he plans to reveal on Monday, February 22.
But hopes the world-beating vaccine roll-out will mean lockdown curbs can be significantly eased any time soon were shot down today by Mr Hancock, who unveiled the latest suite of border curbs and warned they could last until the Autumn when booster vaccines will be available.
Mark Harper — chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of lockdown sceptics, with 70 Tory MPs — said: “Back-of-the-envelope calculations I did based on two million doses a week mean you could get the top nine priority groups, first doses, and the top four groups, second doses, all done by the end of May.
“So it seems to me by the time you get to the end of May, no later than that, you should be in a position to get rid of restrictions completely.
The NRG was launched by Tory MPs representing constituencies in Wales, northern regions and the Scottish borders – largely the parts of the country the current Government had promised to support when it was elected.
It has been calling for the Government to set out a specific northern economic recovery plan to help these regions in the wake of economically-damaging lockdowns.