THE MP for West Dorset does not agree with the decision to extend the lockdown, claiming 'it is not in Dorset’s interests to continue with these restrictions'.

A delay to the final phase of the lockdown road map was announced yesterday amid growing concerns over the rapidly spreading Delta variant, first identified in India.

Experts feared going ahead with Step 4 on Monday, June 21 as anticipated could lead to hospital admissions on the scale of the first wave of Covid-19, heaping unsustainable pressure on the health service.

As a result of this, the further easing of lockdown restrictions has been pushed back to Monday, July 19.

Following the announcement the MP for West Dorset, Chris Loder said that he would not vote in support of the extension if it came to that.

Mr Loder said: "Without some significant evidence to support the extension of lockdown restrictions, it is not in Dorset’s interests to continue these restrictions any further and I therefore cannot vote in support of this extension if it comes to the house for a vote.

Mr Loder said: "We are going to have to live with this virus. We cannot go on penalising sensible and responsible people here in Dorset, especially those who are older and vaccinated and when the case rate is only 3.6 cases per hundred thousand in the over 60s.

"As of last week, throughout Dorset, we have just one person who is poorly in hospital with Covid. It has almost been two months since anyone has died from Covid in Dorset. Public Health England are not talking about the real health issues that we experience such as making sure that older people can see their doctor in person if they need to, get access to dentists, get progress with routine operations and make sure we get people make to daily life."