DUP MPs attend Commons vote after Speaker warning

Two DUP MPs have travelled to Westminster for a debate which the Commons speaker advised should only be attended if "absolutely necessary".

Sammy Wilson and Jim Shannon were among about 30 MPs who sat socially distanced on the benches during the debate.

DUP leader Arlene Foster has defended her party colleagues for attending.

Parliament was recalled after its Christmas break to hear a statement from Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the latest lockdown in England.

Ahead of the debate, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle advised MPs to stay away from the chamber and participate remotely "unless absolutely necessary" due to the sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases across the UK.

"As per my advice on the previous recall, I would strongly urge you not to physically come to Westminster to participate in any business unless absolutely necessary due to the current severe public health situation," he wrote to MPs.

"Members' staff should also be working from home and I have asked the House authorities to limit House staff on the estate to a bare minimum."

Mrs Foster was asked about the issue by SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole during a debate in the Stormont assembly.

She said there was a system of proxy votes in the Commons and that Mr Wilson and Mr Shannon "have to go and deliver the votes of their colleagues".

She accused the SDLP of attempting to make political points and said she regretted the tone of Mr O'Toole's comment.

Later, DUP MP Sammy Wilson defended attending the House of Commons, saying he would be in more danger riding his motorcycle.

Mr Wilson said he had to go as DUP chief whip to ensure his party's votes could be registered.

He defended the decision of his colleague Jim Shannon to also attend, saying that the Strangford MP wanted to be there in his role as party health spokesperson.

"I drive a motorbike, I drive a motorcar. Actually, at my age, I'm more in danger of being killed on my motorbike than I am of being affected by this virus," Mr Wilson told BBC News NI.

He added: "How I decide to do my job is up to me."

The DUP MP rejected criticism from the SDLP and the Alliance Party who accused him of setting a bad example in the middle of a pandemic.

Mr Wilson said: "If there is a vote I will have all of the proxies (proxy votes) for all of our members. Jim Shannon is our health spokesperson.

"And both of us made a decision that we wanted to register for votes if there were votes, and that as health spokesperson, he wanted to speak and wanted to speak in person in the chamber.

"There is nobody who is more aware of the risks than Jim Shannon and sometimes we chide him about how safety conscious he is."

The East Antrim MP also defended his trip to the north coast at the weekend.

He said "I decided I wanted to go for a walk along the beach. I was not with a crowd. I think that given the bracing wind that there was on the beach it would have killed everything, including coronavirus."

During the Westminster debate, Mr Wilson challenged Prime Minister Boris Johnson about the effectiveness of lockdowns in curbing the spread of the virus.

He asked him if the latest lockdown was simply a case of "third time lucky".

Mr Wilson said: "For the third time in nine months the government has introduced a damaging lockdown policy which we know will cause thousands of businesses to go bankrupt, cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, damage children's education, lead the national debt to soar, remove basic liberties from people which we expect in a free democracy.

"All because the government says that we need - and the justification is - we need to suppress the virus, protect the national health service and to protect the vulnerable.

"Since those objectives were not achieved by the first two lockdowns, why does the prime minister believe it will be achieved this time?

"Is there some firm evidence for it? Or is the government just hoping it will be third time lucky?"

Mr Johnson responded by pointing out that most of western Europe was now in some form of lockdown.

He added: "We have to protect our NHS and stop it being overwhelmed and that is what the last lockdowns did.

"They did stop the NHS from being over-topped by the wave of the pandemic.

"And had that happened I'm afraid the death toll would have been unconscionable."

Speaking directly to Mr Wilson, the prime minister said: "When he looks at what his constituents and what the public think about this, they know that overwhelmingly we are right to protect them, protect the NHS and save lives."