Londoners who fled capital ahead of Tier 4 restrictions were ‘totally irresponsible’ says Matt Hancock

Coronavirus - Sat Dec 19, 2020
Paddington station was packed on Saturday after Boris Johnson announced the Tier 4 lockdown
PA
Lizzie Edmonds @lizzieedmo20 December 2020

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has blasted people who fled London hours before tier 4 restrictions came into force as "totally irresponsible." 

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Hancock said people in Tier 4 must “follow the rules” and act as though they have the virus.

He also said it was "totally irresponsible behaviour" to travel after the new restrictions were announced.

Mr Hancock later repeated his words on the Marr Show.

“I think those scenes were totally irresponsible. We have all got a responsibility.

“We in Government of course have a responsibility, but so does every single person,” the Health Secretary told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.

“The plea that I have is that people will play their part, because it is only by acting – all of us – that we can get this under control.”

Mr Hancock rejected suggestions by critics like the senior Tory MP Sir Charles Walker that he could resign.

“I am dealing with a global pandemic in the best way we possibly can, with huge pressures on the NHS, with case rates that are climbing and we must take action no matter how uncomfortable we find it,” he said.

It comes as reports said that police and rail staff will turn away passengers trying to leave Tier 4 areas on Sunday as millions of people in the South East woke up in new strict coronavirus restrictions.

Rail bosses are said to have held crisis talks on how to implement the strict new Tier 4 rules, which came into force in the region at 7am.  

Travel into and out of the new tier 4 zone is now banned, in measures created to contain the new mutant strain of the coronavirus.

Passengers who had booked tickets home from December 23 - when the relaxed Christmas bubble measures were due to start - have been told travel will now be limited to essential workers.

Thousands of Londoners attempted to flee the city last night - with images posted on social media showing crowds at Euston, London Kings Cross and Paddington stations.

Branding it the 'last train out of Saigon' – a reference to the evacuation of US personnel during the Vietnam War – journalist Harriet Clugston wrote: “Every person on this train including myself has made what is probably a very silly and irresponsible decision to travel albeit within the law.

“But that's what people were always going to do to be together at Christmas.”

Travellers at St Pancras station were told that social distancing “will not be possible” due to the volume of people on board, and those that felt “uncomfortable” should not stay on the train.

Meanwhile on the roads, Edmund King, president of the AA, said that within 90 minutes of Boris Johnson's bombshell announcement, there were reports of people jumping into cars and taxis and even hiring vehicles to escape London before draconian new rules were imposed.

Coronavirus - Sat Dec 19, 2020
PA

“There are certainly elements of an exodus of some people from tier 4,” he told The Mail on Sunday.

It came after England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty last night advised people who were attempting to leave to “please unpack” their bags.

On Saturday, Mr Johnson effectively cancelled Christmas for almost 18 million people in London, south-eastern and eastern England as the region was put into a new two-week lockdown.

Under the new Tier 4 rules non-essential shops - as well as gyms, cinemas, casinos and hairdressers - have to stay shut and people are limited to meeting one other person from another household in an outdoor public space.

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