Michael Fabricant broke ranks with some of his Conservative colleagues over social distancing in a House of Commons debate on Monday.

While many Conservative MPs called for an immediate reduction of the two metre social distancing rule, Michael Fabricant called for caution.

Speaking via Teams in the House of Commons, Michael said:  “May I say how surprised and delighted I am to hear that so many colleagues, on both sides of the House, are now experts in epidemiology? But may I say to the Minister that I am very reassured by the tone he is taking in the answers to these questions. He will be aware that in the United States, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and now China there has been a resurgence of Covid-19 and that if we were to make any moves too soon to reduce social distancing, nobody would thank us, including businesses, if we had to return to a hard lockdown.”

The Health Minister, Edward Argar replied:  “My hon. Friend is right to say that this is about conducting this review so that we have the best scientific and economic evidence, and so that we can make the right decision at the right time, and when it is safe to do so.”

Michael Fabricant now says:  “I am well aware of the urgent need for social distancing to be reduced to enable pubs, restaurants, retailing – and the economy as a whole – to return to normal.  But until the chances of a major return spike in infections can be minimised, we need to exercise caution about doing anything that could increase the chances of contagion particularly as we now seem to have Covid-19 under some degree of control.”