Plans for rural areas with low infection rates to 'decouple' from those in strictest tiers in doubt

The Telegraph has reported on warnings from Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab MP (Con) over the possibility of a third national lockdown if the country fails to ‘get the balance right’, throwing proposals to ‘decouple’ rural areas from the most restrictive tiers into doubt

In a warning to backbench MPs, Mr Raab said there would be a ‘risk’ of a third wave of COVID-19 if the Government failed to implement the strict post-lockdown measures.

He refused to rule out another lockdown if there were another spike in cases in the new year, saying only that the Government was ‘doing everything we can to avoid that’.

He also said the Government would stick with a ‘countrywide’ approach to allocating tiers despite some MPs in areas with low infection rates being told that their areas could be split from cities that had ‘unfairly’ dragged them into Tiers 2 and 3.

He said: ‘The problem with keeping some of those almost enclave areas in lower levels is the rate spikes if they’re not under the same wider level of restriction.’

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The Telegraph - Plans for rural areas with low infection rates to 'decouple' from those in strictest tiers in doubt