Why the Liberal Democrats won’t vote to renew the Coronavirus Act

A government that cared about civil liberties and the rule of law would not be seeking to renew such flawed legislation. Handing ministers a blank cheque for another six months is unnecessary and unjustified

Boris Johnson is asking MPs to vote to renew the Coronavirus Act (REUTERS)

When Boris Johnson asks MPs to renew the Coronavirus Act on Thursday, he is asking us to give his government a blank cheque to reduce everyone’s rights and freedoms for another six months. No MP should vote for that.

It’s important to remember what this vote is not about. It’s not about lockdown, or quarantine, or the requirement to wear face-coverings – all of which the Liberal Democrats have consistently supported as necessary to contain the spread of the virus and keep people safe.

Despite its name, the Coronavirus Act doesn’t actually include the most important Covid laws. Even though the Act originally passed through the House of Commons on the same day the prime minister announced the first national lockdown – a year ago yesterday – the lockdown itself was implemented through completely separate legislation, under the 1984 Public Health Act.

Nor is Thursday’s vote about furlough, or financial support for self-employed people – no matter what Matt Hancock claims. The Liberal Democrats championed both these schemes to protect jobs and support small business. They will, thankfully, continue even if the government is defeated tomorrow.

So what is the vote about? It’s about renewing a whole multitude of powers the government awarded itself in a panic back at the start of the pandemic – when we still knew very little about the threat the country was facing.

A year ago, parliament was about to shut its doors and MPs were about to head home to lockdown with our families. There wasn’t yet any system in place to allow us to debate or vote on new laws remotely. For all we knew, it might have been many months before parliament had another chance to pass emergency laws to deal with a particular aspect of the pandemic. No one wanted to leave the government without the tools it needed to keep people safe.

So MPs and peers of all parties worked constructively with the government to pass the 348-page Coronavirus Act and give ministers powers they might need before parliament could reconvene. The bill was rushed through, out of necessity, with just one day of debate in the Commons, two days in the Lords, and not a single vote in either House.

Some parts of the act have proven necessary to help tackle the impact of the pandemic, but many haven’t been needed at all. And a lot of them have serious implications for people’s fundamental rights and freedoms.

The sheer quantity of emergency legislation has also caused enormous confusion among police and prosecutors, leading to people being wrongfully arrested, charged and even prosecuted. A review by the Crown Prosecution Service has found that of more than 250 prosecutions under the Coronavirus Act in the past year, not a single one was correctly charged.

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That’s a shocking amount of confusion and mistakes, which brings our justice system into disrepute and jeopardises the trust and confidence our police officers need to do their jobs.

A sensible, reasonable government that cared about civil liberties and the rule of law would not be seeking to renew such a flawed piece of legislation. It would work cross-party to replace it with new laws that are necessary to tackle the next phase of the pandemic, while respecting rights and freedoms.

By claiming instead that they need these same emergency powers for another six months, Conservative ministers are essentially saying they have learnt nothing over the past year. And, as their draconian new protest crackdown law shows, the Conservatives have no intention of restoring people’s rights once the pandemic has passed.

Liberal Democrats have always been clear that our freedoms must be fully restored as soon as this crisis is over. Handing ministers a blank cheque for another six months is unnecessary and unjustified, so we will be voting against the renewal of the Coronavirus Act tomorrow.

Ed Davey is leader of the Liberal Democrats and the MP Kingston and Surbiton