Ashfield MP Lee Anderson will vote for lockdown as the alternative is thousands more dead

But Covid cases are on the rise and the amount of Covid patients in Kings Mill is nearly at April’s peak.

This is being repeated all over the UK which is why the Prime Minister announced on Saturday night that the country needs a partial lockdown to control the virus and save lives.

Today (Wednesday) in Parliament, I can either vote for a partial lockdown which will undoubtedly cause damage to our economy, cost jobs, force businesses to close and cost the tax payer a fortune or vote against a partial lockdown which could cause the NHS to be overwhelmed and cause an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 extra deaths per day.

When put like this, the cold harsh truth is that, with a heavy heart, I will have to do the unthinkable and vote for a partial lockdown and take away people’s freedoms.

This is something I do not want to do but I could not sleep at night if thousands more people died as a result of Parliament not voting the right way.

I have had a few people say to me that things are not as serious as they were because less people are dying in hospital from Covid.

Yes, less people are dying but this is because hospital treatments are much better than six months ago.

Kings Mill Hospital is coping incredibly well at two-thirds of the number of Covid patients compared to the previous peak, but numbers are rising.

A&E patients are being treated within four hours and the chief executive Richard Mitchell advises me that the hospital is ‘open for business’ for patients who need other treatments such as cancer, diagnostics and surgery.

Kings Mill’s fantastic staff have worked incredibly hard over the course of this year and it is the only ‘outstanding’ rated hospital in the midlands.

Finally, last week I opened the new Riley Foundation Play Centre in Underwood.

This sensory play centre for children with SEN is the best facility in the Midlands and the founder’s husband and wife Melanie and Mark Wilson along with Andrew and Dawn Justice have done a magnificent job in creating this world class facility.

Lee Anderson is MP for Ashfield.