UK coronavirus live: Starmer dismisses PM's plan as 'full of holes' as MPs debate new Covid tiers

Latest updates: new tiers system likely to pass Commons vote this evening; Boris Johnson hints tiering decisions may be more localised in future

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2.51pm GMT

Mark Harper, chair of the Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs, says the government has not provided evidence to justify these measures. In particular, he says it has not shown why the hospitality industry is assumed to pose a greater risk.

He will vote against the regulations tonight, he says. In future, he says, the government should trust MPs more, and share its evidence with them. He implies that if that were to happen, he would be more supportive in the future.

2.47pm GMT

Sammy Wilson (DUP) says he is concerned about these restrictions because he thinks measures in England get copied in Northern Ireland. He will accept restrictions if there is a reason for them, but he says he has not been persuaded that these are justified. And he says that, although the media highlight the deaths from coronavirus, they do not report the non-Covid deaths that might occur as a result of lockdown measures being in place.

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source: theguardian.com