'We've had fear, doom, gloom, death and destruction rained down on us': MP calls for new approach to fighting virus

He said: "I ask myself daily, if we lock the country down again, locally or nationally, will the virus disappear - as it clearly does before popping out to strike us all down at 10pm?

"What are we doing to our country? Lives and livelihoods ruined, families torn apart, our economy falling into an abyss, students worrying whether they can go home for Christmas; curfews and restrictions.

"A major rethink is needed and fast before we do irreparable harm. This disease, like any other disease, is here to stay - whether we like it or not - and we must learn to live with it."

Mr Drax added that he wants to safeguard his constituents and the country but to do so with "pragmatism and common sense, and not out of fear".

He said: "We've had fear, doom, gloom, death, destruction rained down on us every single day. Television, media, here, every single day. Where's the hope for goodness sake? Let's stand up as a country and fight this."

He spoke out as Health Secretary Matt Hancock agreed to hold a further meeting with a Tory MP leading a rebellion over Parliament's ability to scrutinise Government-imposed coronavirus restrictions.

Mr Hancock told the Commons he would meet Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the influential Tory backbench 1922 Committee, to discuss matters further.

Tory former minister Sir Edward Leigh said: "Will he also reassure us that he's determined to take Parliament with him, and may I urge him in that respect to meet with my honourable friend (Sir Graham Brady) and come to a compromise and ensure that if there are further lockdowns Parliament is fully involved in this process?"

Responding, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the Commons: "I strongly agree with the need for us in this House to have the appropriate level of scrutiny.

"We've already, as the Prime Minister set out last week, put in place further measures.

"The aim is to provide the House with the opportunity to scrutinise in advance through regular statements and debates, questioning the Government's scientific advisers more regularly which has already started, gaining access to local data and having the daily calls with ministers including the Paymaster General (Penny Mordaunt).

"We're looking at further ways to ensure the House can be properly involved in the process in advance where possible.

"And I hope to provide the House with further details soon and I will take up the invitation to a further meeting with (Sir Graham), with whom I have already met to discuss this matter to see what further progress can be made and I hope that that, for the time being, satisfies my right honourable friend."

Conservative former minister Chris Grayling said he understood Matt Hancock must take decisions quickly, adding: "But when it comes to new national measures, and many of us represent areas where the incidence of the virus remains very low, in the southern part of my constituency in that district there were no cases last week.

"Before we embark upon measures that affect everyone, as opposed to firefighting in individual areas, it is really important that this House has the chance to really scrutinise and hold to account and challenge - we know he wants to do the right thing, we want to help him do the right thing."

Mr Hancock replied: "Help like that is always very welcome. What I can say is we want to ensure that the House can be properly involved in this process whilst also allowing the whole nation to move fast where that's necessary."

He added: "I welcome the rightful recognition that sometimes we do we have to decide at pace, this is an unprecedented situation and the truth is that the secondary legislation procedures were not themselves designed for a situation like this.

"The question is how we can have the appropriate level of scrutiny whilst also making sure that we can move fast where that is necessary."

Mr Hancock told MPs: "I welcome the scrutiny that this House gives. I have answered seven urgent questions, given 12 statements and taken 800 interventions since the start of this pandemic and I am committed to continuing to the engagement."

Intervening, Tory Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) said: "But it's not just about scrutiny, it's about the laws we're making and the ones that for example came in at midnight tonight, with 12 pages of detailed laws, lots of detail and criminal offences and duties not mentioned when they were set out in a statement last week, including duties on employers, directors and officers with serious criminal penalties, that's why we need to scrutinise the detail of the legislation before it comes into force and give our assent to it, not I'm afraid just allow him to do so by decree."

Mr Hancock replied: "Well of course sometimes in this pandemic we have to move fast, sometimes we have had to move fast and we may need to again. The challenge we have in this House is how to ensure proper scrutiny whilst also being able, when necessary, to move fast in response to the virus. That is the challenge that collectively we all face."

Matt Hancock said there is "not a simple trade off" between keeping people safe and protecting people's liberties.

He told MPs: "The central question about the control of the virus, without a doubt in my mind, and this is a question I ask myself every day, is how do we best keep people safe from this virus whilst protecting liberty and livelihoods and the things that make life worth living?

"And I believe that in reality, there is not a simple trade-off between these things.

"Because the exponential growth of the virus means that there are in reality only two paths: either to control the virus or to let it rip.

"There is no middle option. Because once the virus is growing it accelerates."

Mr Hancock added that "letting the virus rip would leave a death toll too big to bear".

Tory Steve Baker (Wycombe) said: "Surely it was possible in eight days to have had the debate that (my right honourable friend) has called for?"

Mr Hancock replied: "The challenge is how to do that and also be able to move at pace and I'd be very happy to talk with him along with others on how to make this happen.

"I would say however, that in respect to the laws that came into place overnight they set out, I set them out in a statement, in fact the Prime Minister set out many of them in a statement last week and so we have been clear about the policy intent and the question is how we can make sure that we deal with appropriately in the future."

Matt Hancock has faced calls from MPs to remove the 10pm curfew after crowded scenes after pub closing time.

Labour's Rachael Maskell (York Central) said: "(Mr Hancock) would have seen clips of what happened in my constituency on Saturday night at 10 o'clock as the streets filled out with young people enjoying themselves, partying, no social distancing and clearly creating the worst of environments.

"Could (Mr Hancock) now review that policy of the 10 o'clock curfew to ensure that our streets and our neighbourhoods are safe?"

Mr Hancock replied: "Well we always look at the effects of these policies, we've got to take everything into the round including the level of social distancing that might have been going on were that to continue all through the night.

"And one of the reasons that we brought in this policy is because we've seen it work in other countries as (Ms Maskell) knows."

Mr Hancock announced further restrictions for the north-east of England including "restrictions on indoor mixing between households in any setting".

He told the Commons: "Today I must announce further measures for the parts of the north-east where we introduced local action a fortnight ago.

"Unfortunately the number of cases continues to rise sharply. The incident rate across the area is now over 100 cases per 100,000. We know that a large number of these infections are taking place in indoor settings outside the home.

"And so at the request of the local councils, with whom we have been working closely, we will introduce legal restrictions on indoor mixing between households in any setting.

"We do not take these steps lightly but we must take them and take them now because we know that swift action is more likely to bring the virus under control and the quicker we can get this virus under control, the quicker we can restore the freedoms we all enjoy in the north-east and across the country."

Matt Hancock said the NHS Covid-19 app contact tracing for England has been downloaded 12.4 million times as of midday on Monday.

He told the Commons: "I would urge everybody, including every single member in this House, to join the 12.4 million."

On a vaccine, Mr Hancock said: "The best way to protect us long term, of course, for our lives and our livelihoods is a vaccine. Work progresses as fast as safely possible.

"On Friday the joint committee on vaccinations and immunisations published its interim guidance on how we proposed to prioritise access to a vaccine as soon as one becomes available.

"A huge planning effort is underway led the NHS with the support of the armed forces to ensure that we're ready for a roll out as soon as feasibly possible."

He told the Commons: "All the way through this pandemic I've welcomed debate and scrutiny in this House and on Wednesday we'll debate and vote on extending the vital measures in the Coronavirus Act and that Act provides for powers that are critical to the control of this virus and I urge all colleagues to work together to ensure that we come through this in the best possible way because ultimately, wherever in this chamber we may sit, we are all on the same side, steadfast in our determination to defeat this deadly virus."

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth noted the global coronavirus death toll as it neared a million.

He said: "Thousands and thousands of stories of shattered families from these last six months. Now we cannot bring back lost loved ones, but we must ensure that lessons are learned and an inquiry must take place at the appropriate time.

"We are now facing a resurgence or a second wave, a second tide, whatever we call it, we know prevalence is rising. We are seeing an increase in admissions to critical care."

He added: "According to the latest data from the intensive care research and audit centre, September's critical care admissions revealed people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds over-represented in admissions, as are people from the very poorest backgrounds. A sobering reminder that Covid thrives on inequalities, interacting with a number of long-term conditions."

Tory former minister Steve Baker said he and other colleagues had a "constructive meeting" with senior Government figures over their concerns about scrutiny of the Covid-19 regulations.

He said: "We're into a different phase of the disease. It really is time to reach an agreement. I'm very happy to say we've just had a constructive meeting with the Secretary of State, the Chief Whip and the Leader of the Commons and it really is time to reach a constructive way forward.

"I know it's inconvenient for ministers to come to the House before they take away people's liberties, but what I'd say to ministers is it is supposed to be. It is what keeps us a free people."

Another Tory former minister, Sir Christopher Chope, accused the Government of "covert mission creep" over its expansion of coronavirus regulations using secondary legislation.

He added: "I'm not yet persuaded that I need to support the continuation of the Coronavirus Act. And why am I not persuaded of that? Because the Government is guilty of covert mission creep.

"When we were told six months ago that it was necessary to rush legislation through it was on the basis that we wanted to prevent our NHS being overwhelmed with people dying from Covid in hospital corridors and not being able to access the care that they needed.

"Fortunately, as a result of the emergency measures that were taken, that scenario never arose, people were taken to hospital and they received the very best treatment in a hospital and continue so to do.

"So the original objective of this legislation has been achieved but as so often happens with regulation brought in by governments, they want to keep the regulations. They say 'oh well we need to keep them just in case'.

"So that's why I was demanding in an adjournment debate on September 2 that if they were going to keep these regulations then it should be on the basis that there were proper regulatory impact assessments of the impact of those regulations, and we never got those regulatory impact assessments. It's all most unsatisfactory."

The rollout of a potential Covid-19 vaccination programme in the UK "is up there with the D-day landings and indeed Dunkirk," another Dorset MP has claimed.

Tobias Ellwood, Tory chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, called on the Prime Minister to consider utilising the expertise of the military in helping to plan for a mass immunisation scheme - if a vaccine is found to work.

He told MPs: "The scale and complexity of this challenge is up there with the D-day landings and indeed Dunkirk.

"And to put this politely, we must learn the lessons of the PPE rollout, testing, track and trace. Mass vaccine rollout is an enormous responsibility and we need to get it right.

"Planning must start immediately, and I have written to the Prime Minister recommending that he consider calling on the Ministry of Defence to establish a small task force led by a senior empowered voice of authority to begin the planning and design of a draft blueprint.

"The armed forces have the capacity, the logistical experience and the national reach and are not overburdened by any current duties involving tackling Covid-19 to take on this mammoth and incredible task."