MP McMahon urges common sense approach from Health Secretary

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon has written to the Health Secretary asking him to apply some common sense to Oldham’s local restrictions.

In his letter to Matt Hancock, the Oldham MP states that ‘there is real confusion about the complexity of the rules applied to differing areas’.

The letter contains two key asks.

Firstly, that the government rationalises the rules around guests at funerals so that 30 people can attend in Oldham as they can elsewhere.

Secondly, that people in Oldham be allowed to meet their friends and family outside with social distancing in place.

Speaking after the letter was sent, Mr McMahon said: “The patchwork of restrictions is a mess.

"It doesn’t make sense to me or to any of my constituents that there are places in Greater Manchester with a higher infection rate than ours but they are subject to different restrictions.

“When the government changed the guidance nationally they recognised just how distressing funerals are at the moment, and whilst they changed the limit on the number of guests at weddings, the number of attendees at a funeral stayed at 30.

“But in Oldham it’s even lower at 20, I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to ask that Oldham is brought into line with other areas and we show a bit of compassion at the moment.

“The pandemic has been hard for all of us, not being able to see our friends and family for months and then having to keep up with changing restrictions.

"Since the social lockdown was introduced in Oldham five weeks ago our infection rate has trebled so my constituents are rightly asking that whether they are having any impact.

“So allowing people to meet outside, with social distancing and other appropriate common sense measures in place, will be good for our mental and physical health.

“All future measures must be supported by the evidence, otherwise people are just going to continue to be confused.

"I’m not arguing that Oldham should be released from all of the extra-restrictions, it’s clear from the infection rates that we do have a problem but we also have to be realistic and recognise that these measures need to be clear and make sense to people otherwise they just won’t trust us.”

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