YORK Outer Tory MP Julian Sturdy has rebelled against his own Government on a vote to extend emergency powers and impose coronavirus restrictions for a further six months.

He said today that the period went far beyond the end of the government’s roadmap for lifting all legal limits on social contact from June 21, and long after all those at serious risk from Covid have been covered by vaccination, and it therefore represented an' unnecessary prolonging of extraordinary and damaging restraints on everyday life.'

He said he was one of 35 Conservative MPs to vote against the government, who were joined by a further 25 Conservatives who abstained.

He said: “Of course government must always have the necessary measures to tackle the virus, but with the amazing success of the vaccination programme, I no longer think it is right to hand enormous powers to Ministers and civil servants for such long periods of time."

He said he would probably have supported powers until late June but September was 'simply too great a surrender of power by the people’s elected representatives.'