Scarborough area's MPs tell Matt Hancock why one tier for the county won't work

There has been talk of imposing restrictions on North Yorkshire as a whole, rather than by individual boroughs once the national lockdown ends next week.

But MP for Scarborough and Whitby Robert Goodwill and MP for Thirsk and Malton Kevin Hollinrake are making a case for boroughs being looked at independently.

Speaking to Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night, the pair explained why North Yorkshire should be broken down.

“We made the point that because North Yorkshire is such a large area and doesn’t have as much travel between boroughs, it should be looked at in terms of each district,” said Mr Goodwill.

Which tier each part of the country will be in is expected to be announced this Thursday.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to the nation about the new restrictions which will come into force when lockdown comes to a close on December 2.

In a response to Conservative MP Damian Green, Mr Johnson appeared to indicate that measures would not be done on the smaller, district-wide level.

Mr Green said that the public would not follow “sensible rules” if the Government imposed “stupid” rules that people in areas with low infection rates would think were “unfair”.

In response, the Prime Minister said: “On my Right Honourable friend’s point about local versus regional, alas, the disease is no respecter of borough boundaries.

“We have to have some regions in which to constitute the tiers that are sensible and large enough.”

The decision on what tier an area will be placed into will take into account a number of factors including the infection rate, hospital admissions and capacity and the spread of the virus among different age groups.