FOUR Conservative MPs have explained why they supported the new national lockdown after opposing earlier plans to tighten local restrictions in Oxfordshire.

The county's four Conservative MPs were among the parliamentarians who voted in favour of England’s new lockdown on Wednesday (November 4), despite opposing the much less harsh Tier 2 controls of the now-outdated regional coronavirus restrictions only last week.

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Tory MPs, John Howell (Henley), David Johnston (Wantage), Robert Courts (Witney) and Victoria Prentis (Banbury), said they regretted that national measures had been taken.

In a joint statement they said: "This is a decision that none of us wanted to take but the data suggests that there is real pressure on hospitals nationwide. Whatever the position with capacity at OUHFT, to whom we have spoken, it remains the case that hospitals transfer people around the country to make the use of available space, and so Oxfordshire may have to play a part to help elsewhere even though cases in our area are, at present, low."

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Oxfordshire's six different MPs

The MPs added they did not support the request by Oxfordshire council leaders to move the entire county into Tier 2 restrictions two weeks ago.

They stressed that despite their lobbying against the restrictions, a decision was ultimately made by England's Chief Medical Officer and the Joint Biosecurity Centre.

Their statement concluded: "Had Oxfordshire as a whole gone into Tier 2, our constituents would have been subject to further restrictions for even longer.

"Given areas may well come out of lockdown into the tier they were in beforehand, we are hopeful this will mean the county outside Oxford City emerges into tier 1 rather than tier 2 or 3."

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Oxford’s Lib Dem and Labour MPs Layla Moran and Anneliese Dodds also backed the new lockdown.

But they had previously also supported moving the entire county into Tier 2 of the regional restrictions.

By contrast the four Conservative MPs backed moving only Oxford into Tier 2, and the week before had lobbied against the county being moved into higher restrictions.

Oxford was only in Tier 2 of regional restrictions for five days before the new lockdown came into force.