Dewsbury MP Mark Eastwood has claimed to oppose the local lockdown measure which have been imposed solely by his own government, but has publicly sought to blame Kirklees Council who have no say over the lockdown rules.

Mark has blamed Kirklees Council for the geography of the local lockdown rules, despite the fact that the measures have been implemented by his own party’s government, who have the sole power over the lockdown geography.

The Government did not even inform the Council of its decision to enforce a local lockdown before it introduced the local restrictions, with only a few hours before implementation.

The Government did not speak to the Leader of the Council before deciding to keep all of Kirklees in the local restrictions for another week.

Residents in Denby Dale and surrounding areas have had a lower rate of infection than many areas that are not in lockdown (such as Barnsley and Wakefield) for more than 2 months. Their inclusion in the Government’s measures has caused much local frustration.

Denby Dale Labour councillor Will Simpson wrote to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care hours after the local resections were announced calling for the Department to ‘allow councils, such as Kirklees, to remove (or impose) local lockdown measures within their borough, like those imposed last night, on the basis of the data, as they relate to their own geographies’ so that the lockdown is targeted on the virus, not on where you pay your council tax.

These calls were ignored.

Despite this, Mark has attempted to blame the Council for something which it has no control over and for which the full legal powers rest with his Government.

Mark not only seems to be incapable of taking any responsibility for his own Government’s decisions, but to be deliberately misleading his residents in the process, in an attempt to deflect blame.

In the week that his Government has thrown A-Level results into chaos, Mark was hoping to be awarded an E for his Honesty, but unfortunately due to recent performance, this has been downgraded to a U by our algorithm.