Charles walker

What Tory MPs fear most about a lockdown delay

As Boris Johnson prepares to announce a four-week delay to the final stage out of lockdown, he faces a mixed reaction. Labour plans to back the delay but make clear that it was avoidable and is down to bad leadership. The public is seen to be more forgiving — with a Times/YouGov poll over the weekend finding that 53 per cent think that restrictions should remain beyond 21 June, compared with 34 per cent who say they should end. Many Tory MPs, meanwhile, are opposed to the delay on the grounds that they are losing faith all restrictions will be lifted this year. ‘If you can’t lift restrictions at the height of summer

Watch: Charles Walker’s ‘pint of milk’ lockdown speech

Sir Charles Walker has earned himself the reputation of being one of the most consistent and outspoken critics of the government’s lockdown policy. The 1922 Committee stalwart has previously gone viral for passionate clips lambasting Matt Hancock’s 10 year imprisonment plan for returning holidaymakers dodging quarantine rules, attacking Boris Johnson for treating MPs like ‘dogs’ and describing lockdown as ‘studied and deliberate cruelty for a nation under pressure.’  Today Walker’s ire was directed at what he considers to be Britain’s slide into authoritarianism, promising in a four minute speech to carry a pint of milk around London in the next few days as a silent protest: ‘That pint will remind me

Watch: Tory MP defends arrested lockdown protestor

The Tory MP and former 1922 committee chair Charles Walker appears to have become involved in a lockdown protest outside Parliament today. The MP was outside the House of Commons when he witnessed an elderly woman being arrested by police. In response, Walker told the officers that their arrest was an ‘outrage’ and was not necessary: Walker then appeared in the House of Commons to make a point of order. He said that the woman had been taking part in a peaceful protest outside Parliament before she was carried ‘spread-eagle’ to a police van. He described the arrest as a ‘disgrace, un-British’ and ‘unconstitutional’ and called on the Prime Minister or