Return to March-style lockdown must be met with March-style support for businesses - MP

Commenting on today's news that Cumbria has been placed into Tier 4 restrictions, local MP Tim Farron said:

"With much of the country, including Cumbria, being placed into tough Tier 4 restrictions, we return to a familiar old message - we must stay at home to protect our NHS and saves lives.

"But it's also critical that a return to a March-style lockdown must come with March-style support for our local businesses, particularly in the hospitality, leisure and tourism industries and those workers and self-employed people who have been excluded from support for the past 10 months.

"Today's phenomenal vaccine news truly is the light emerging at the end of the tunnel - we must protect as many lives and livelihoods as possible as we work to reach it."