Second UK Lockdown Approved in Parliament

The second national lockdown that was proposed by PM Boris Johnson last week in an attempt to combat the spread of coronavirus was approved in the House of Commons earlier today.

The vote was won by an overwhelming 516 to 38.

Despite the vast majority supporting the proposals, there was questioning from opposition leader Keir Starmer, who asked if the lockdown would indeed end on the arranged date of December 2nd.

"These measures to combat the surge will expire automatically on December 2 and then we will then we can get this country running again in the run up to Christmas.

"But that all depends on us doing our bit now on getting the 'R' down", said the PM.

The R which he refers to is the Reproduction number that is used to quantify how many people are catching the virus from one other person.

The vote means that from Thursday 5 November, the UK will enter into a national lockdown similar to what was enforced in late March to curb the initial wave of COVID-19 cases.

However, there are some significant differences to this lockdown, apart from it only lasting one month.

Primarily, the government is prioritising education this time round and so schools, colleges and universities will all remain open as well as childcare businesses so parents who are forced to be furloughed or work from home won't have to consider how they will balance childcare.

Unlike the last lockdown, people can still socialise with their support bubble, which means that an adult living alone or in a single parent family can mix freely with one other nominated household of any size.