LOCKDOWN restrictions in England are expected to pass with ease in the Commons with the backing of Labour MPs tonight.

MPs have been recalled to Parliament early to vote on England’s third lockdown, that came into force on Tuesday.

Ahead of the vote, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said that Labour MPs would be supporting the Covid-19 Restrictions Regulations law.

He said that there is a “national emergency” fuelled by the home-grown B117 strain that has been found to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the original Covid-19.

One in 50 people in England are infected, he told MPs. Almost 27,000 people with Covid-19 are in hospital, and more than 1,800 are in intensive care.

On Tuesday, there were more than 3,351 hospitalisations, a record daily number.

Official figures show the UK has recorded 62,322 new Covid-19 cases and 1,041 further deaths in the latest 24-hour period.

Mr Ashworth slammed PM Boris Johnson for being“always the last” leader in Britain to decide to go into lockdown while having “all the scientific expertise at his disposal.”

He also called for the ramping up of vaccinations, of which 1.3 million doses have been distributed.

The government is aiming to have 14 million people vaccinated by mid-February, which would need two million doses a week on average. The long-term aim should be six million jabs a week, Mr Ashworth said.

Failure to mass-vaccinate could result in a vaccine-resistant variant that could risk “another devastating Covid wave in winter 2021,” he warned.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the amount of vaccine needs to be increased, but that there is a “rate-limiting factor” in the amount available.

He said: “It is a biological product. It’s a bit like if you bake your own bread, Madam Deputy Speaker, I don’t know if you do, but I do, and it is a bit like the creation of and growth of yeast.”