Council leader accuses Keighley MP of speaking only for 'affluent' parts of restriction-hit constituency

Restrictions in the West Yorkshire areas of Bradford, Calderdale, and Kirklees were announced on Friday after a spike in coronavirus cases, with laws coming in today which prevent people from different households meeting in a private home or garden, among other rules.

But MP for Keighley Robbie Moore posted on Twitter on Monday to say he shared constituents’ frustrations that his area was included in the restrictions because it fell under the Bradford local authority area, when in some parts there had been zero cases recorded for some days.

And he has been joined by fellow Tory MPs Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley), Jason McCartney (Colne Valley), Mark Eastwood (Dewsbury), and Mr Davies in calling for more granular level localities to be identified ahead of a review tomorrow.

Mr Moore said in the video: “We have been working incredibly hard to keep our transmission rates as low as possible and indeed across many parts of the constituency we are seeing no new Covid cases coming through".

And he said the decision on the boundaries was made by Bradford Council, from which he and neighbouring MP Philip Davies, who represents Shipley, are campaigning to break away from.

He said: "The decision for the whole constituency to be included within these new restrictions was made by Bradford Council but signed off by Government and I am now having regular conversations with our Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock, who has assured me that he'll be reviewing the situation within a week's time because I want to see restrictions much more localised geographically so that places within the constituency that are not exposed to high transmission rates can be excluded."

But today Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Labour-run Bradford Council, accused Mr Moore of being “misinformed” and only focusing on the “affluent” parts of his patch when speaking about low cases.

Coun Hinchcliffe said: “We want to work with Government to make sure that the regulations are followed and the infection rates come down. We should all be working towards that end.

“Arguing about whose responsibility these local restrictions are is therefore unhelpful and distracting to the effort of the nation and of the district to fight this virus.”

She said the Bradford district had been consistently in the top five for infection rates but said the council has “no powers to close any sector or any part of the district down”.

She said: “These are Government powers that they exercise, decisions which they take without us in the room.”

She added: “Keighley constituency has its own hot spots of infection.

“I believe Robbie Moore is speaking up for only some parts of his constituency when he talks about ‘low transmission rates’ and is not thinking about those parts of his constituency which have much greater degrees of infection, people who have had to work throughout the lockdown in frontline jobs, living in smaller houses with no gardens.

“This inevitably means they will be more vulnerable to infection.

“He seems to have no message or words of encouragement for the people in these wards with higher infection rates in his constituency, he only has words of support for those in more affluent parts of his constituency. Understandably these people are weary of Covid-19 but until we’ve all got low infection rates it’s not beaten yet.”

But speaking to The Yorkshire Post Mr Moore said he was not asking for a full lifting of restrictions across Keighley, and he recognised there had been some areas where there had been cases, but that more consideration was given to the geography of where those cases were without such a broad brush approach.

He said: “There is frustration that there are certain parts of the constituency that have not witnessed high rates or new cases, particularly the Wharfedale part of the constituency.”

He said: “I think it just needs to be much more geographically localised rather than just following the council authority boundaries. The thing is, the Keighley side has seen new cases Covid cases coming through, whereas the Ilkley side has not.”

He added: “What I certainly can’t advise is a full lifting of the restrictions, there are new cases showing in some parts, but not in other parts.”

He said: “I’ve been informed from a ministerial level that the decision on the geographical area [where restrictions were imposed] was made by the council authority, yes it was signed off by Government, but I think it just shows that more geographically localised decision making needs to be adopted.”

Coun Hinchliffe said she had asked the Government to set up a permanent testing site in Keighley and added: “It is important that as the MP, Robbie Moore states that he supports his Government’s regulations to keep the infection down in his constituency.

“His latest video suggests that he doesn’t support his Government’s regulations. Serious times call for strength and steel.”