The decision to keep my constituency and the Bradford district as a whole in Tier 3 is completely unjustified. It will be a devastating blow to the local economy - in particular the hospitality industry.
It is clear that the Department of Health are making it up as they are going along and constantly changing the goalposts in order to keep us in the highest possible tier throughout.
My heart goes out to those who own, run and work in pubs, restaurants and cafes as well as those who supply them such as local breweries who are seeing their livelihoods removed from them this Christmas.
The faceless people in Whitehall and Ministers making these decisions are not offering to sacrifice their jobs to pursue this damaging strategy. They are just expecting others to sacrifice their jobs to keep pursuing it.
I will continue to do all I can to argue for common sense to prevail and to see our local area removed from Tier 3 at the earliest opportunity, and I will continue to vote against these damaging arbitrary restrictions in Parliament as I have throughout.
As people can see for themselves it is not easy to change the mind of the blinkered people in the Department of Health and Public Health England, but I will keep trying, even though it does feel as if I am banging my head against a brick wall.
I hope that when Matt Hancock and his stooges are enjoying their turkey this Christmas, they give some thought to the huge number of people in our area whose livelihoods they have arbitrarily destroyed. I can only apologise to my constituents on their behalf.
