Shelagh Fogarty's fiery debate with caller who claims "lockdown doesn't work"
15 December 2020, 16:00
Shelagh Fogarty challenges caller who claims lockdown "doesn't work"
Shelagh Fogarty takes on this caller who says she will mix households at Christmas "whatever the Government says" because "Covid measures don't work."
Cabinet minister Michael Gove is holding an urgent meeting with leaders of the devolved UK nations later this afternoon to discuss the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas.
It comes after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to convene an emergency meeting of the government's Cobra committee by lunchtime on Wednesday to review the measure.
Lisa from Gravesend, Kent told Shelagh she will be meeting family in London "whatever the Government says."
She said her reason for this is because Kent was in Tier One, went into lockdown for four weeks and has come out in Tier Three meaning the measures "haven't worked."
"The rates have been going up in Kent through the four weeks of lockdown," she claimed.
Top medical journalist explains why PM must scrap Christmas rules
Shelagh pointed out, "The aim is to stop people ending up in hospital, it's not about infection rates. It is one of the measures but there are up to five factors the Government use to decide who goes into what tier. The most important isn't actually the infection rate."
Lisa retorted, "If it had've worked, we wouldn't have gone in at Tier One and come out at Tier Three, would we?"
Shelagh reiterated that the tier of each area is measured on more than just infection rates, asking why Lisa will see her family "no matter what."
Lisa said, "The way I see it is that we don't know how long this is going to go on for. I keep hearing people saying it's only one Christmas, we don't know that.
"Back in the summer it was only one Easter, it's only one summer, it's only one autumn, we don't know. We're allowed to go to work, we're not allowed to see people over Christmas. There's no way the Government should be telling us we can't do that."
Watch: Top medical journalist explains why PM must scrap Christmas rules
