“There is no alternative but to impose a second England-wide lockdown,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday as he tabled proposals to curb the surge in coronavirus cases in the Parliament, reported PTI.

Rejecting Opposition’s allegations of acting “slow”, Johnson said “no one wants to impose measures unless absolutely essential.”

“When the data changes course, we must change course too,” he told MPs in the House of Commons, who must vote on the plans for them to take effect from Thursday.

Johnson apologised for imposing the lockdown, which will affect the businesses and said “There is no alternative but to take action at a national level… I am truly sorry for the anguish these rules will cause businesses.” He thanked his senior Cabinet minister and Downing Street neighbour, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, for his “creativity” in coming up with support packages to help businesses through the crisis.

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The British PM on Saturday announced the second England-wide stay-at-home lockdown after rise in COVID-19 cases. He told the Commons on Monday that failing to act would risk the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) being overwhelmed and doctors having to choose which patients to treat and having a knock-on effect for other kinds of care.

He warned that COVID-19 is “doubling faster than we could conceivably add capacity” to the health service.

According to the details, the lockdown will “expire” on December 2 and after that the plan is for England to revert to the current tiered system of localised restrictions.

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His statement comes amid a growing rebellion within his own Conservative Party ranks, with backbench MPs openly voicing their dissent against the repeat cycle of lockdowns. He held a series of behind the scenes meetings with the disgruntled Tory MPs to win support for the second lockdown.

The Opposition Labour Party, meanwhile, accused the Johnson-led government of not acting fast enough but confirmed that they would be voting in favour of the second lockdown, which means the changes will clear the parliamentary threshold required by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the UK recorded 18,950 new coronavirus cases and 136 more deaths, taking the country’s toll to 46,853.