MPs and their staff across the political divide have claimed government plans to force them back into the Commons during the coronavirus crisis are “dangerous”.
MPs from opposition parties - including the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Liberal Democrats - say the move by Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg would put them in harms way and contradict social distancing rules still enforced in Scotland and Wales.
Rees-Mogg is planning to wind-down virtual Commons debates in order to encourage MPs to return to parliament by June, newspaper reports suggest.
“It is clear that soon parliament must set an example of how we move back gradually to a fully-function country again - our constituents would expect nothing less,” he told the Commons.
“So while we must move in step with public health guidance, it is vital that when we are asking other people to work and go to their places of work if they cannot do so from home we should not be the ones who are exempt from that. Indeed, we should be leading by example.”
But MPs argue the move puts their lives, and the lives of their constituents, at risk. The SNP’s Philippa Whitford wrote on Twitter: “Crazy! HoC (House of Commons) chamber only allows 50 MPs at safe distance - virtual chamber can add 120”.