Business Minister refuses to rule out London lockdown if Covid numbers spike
3 August 2020, 08:35 | Updated: 3 August 2020, 08:50
Business Minister refuses to rule out London lockdown
The government "will not hesitate to act" and lock down London if there is a spike in coronavirus cases, Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi told LBC.
Reports suggest that the government would use the M25 as a quarantine zone if there is an outbreak in the capital with travel in and out of the city banned.
Tom Swarbrick put that to the Business Minister and he refused to rule it out.
Mr Zahawi said: "We constantly look at how the virus is behaving.
"If we see the virus spreading in a particular way in London, as we have seen in Manchester and West Yorkshire, where it is spreading through people coming into another person's home, then we will discuss that with local leaders.
"And we will not hesitate to act."
Tom pointed out he essentially said a London lockdown was on the table, so the Minister clarified: "Look, I don't want to speculate.
"What I would say is look how we're dealing with it in Leicester, Manchester, West Yorkshire or East Lancashire. We will follow how the virus is behaving and how it is being transmitted between people and act accordingly.
"The most effective way it's beating us is people entering other people's homes.
"This is why we wanted to stop that very quickly in Manchester so we could control the virus again."
Watch his interview at the top of the page.
