Graham Brady isn’t an MP given to criticising the government in public very often at all. As chair of the Conservative 1922 Committee, he tends to communicate his views and those of the party to the Prime Minister in private. So when he does speak out, it’s worth listening. His criticisms have been escalating over the past few weeks, and that says a lot about where the party is generally.
This morning on the Today programme, the Altrincham MP was highly critical not just of the local lockdown affecting his constituents, but also of the way the government is communicating with people more widely about whether or not it is safe to go back to work. He also fired a warning shot about the possibility of tax rises, arguing that they could stultify the recovery.
He said some of his constituents had been ‘in tears’ that they would be unable to see family members and that ‘the emotional hit of being told you can do things, and then you can’t has been really quite bad for a lot of people’.
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