MP and Chair of the COVID Recovery Group Mark Harper Speaks to G&T on Demanding the End of Lockdown

The chair of the COVID Recovery Group of Conservative MPs Mark Harper has told Times Radio the group's demand for a timetable for lifting coronavirus restrictions, with a complete end to domestic controls by the end of April, is "not random" and "linked to the rollout of the vaccine."

Speaking to Gloria De Piero and Tom Newton Dunn he said:

We've set out in the letter what we think is sensible. They're not random, arbitrary timetables. It's linked very much to the rollout of the vaccine...The government has hit its target for getting the top four groups protected by the 15th of February, so once those groups are protected they account for nearly 90 percent of deaths from covid and around 55 percent of those that go into hospital. We think that's the right point, once the vaccinations have kicked in from the 8th of March that you can get schools back and you can start relaxing the restrictions elsewhere. We think by Easter, after you've done two thirds of risk groups 5 to 9, that's everyone over 50 and everyone over 16 who's got a health condition that makes them vulnerable to covid you can sensibly open hospitality for Easter which is a really key date. It makes the difference between staying in business and not. And then once you've protected all of those nine groups, that's 99 percent of the deaths from covid and 80 percent of hospitalisations. We think that's the point at which restrictions, domestically, shouldn't really still exist.

On whether office life should then also get back to normal:

Where businesses want people back in the office then I think they should be able to be back in the office.

And on schools opening from March 8th:

I know the government wants to bring schools back on the 8th of March. We very much agree with that and I hope that's what we'll see happen.