British Cabinet divided on plans to extend lockdown

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Cabinet is divided over plans to extend some lockdown laws in the country for another six months.

The extension of some COVID-19 legislation would mean the rules would be in place for three more months after social distancing legislation is relaxed on June 21.

The prime minister will face resistance from within his own party when he tries to push through the laws on Thursday, which would include powers to close ports, ban protests and detain citizens until the end of September.

Dozens of Tory Members of Parliament, including several members of Cabinet, are against the extension, and are calling for a "road map to freedom that is based on data, not dates".

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mark Harper, chairman of the COVID Recovery Group, known as the CRG, noted that the Coronavirus Act, which is the legislation MPs will vote on this week, contains "some of the most draconian detention powers in modern British legal history".

He highlighted that Johnson had promised his roadmap out of lockdown would "guide us cautiously but irreversibly toward reclaiming our freedoms" by June 21.

"Retaining most temporary provisions of the Coronavirus Act until October is not consistent with this pledge… The roadmap is 'dates, not data'," Harper said.

A Cabinet minister told The Telegraph: "There is a lot of cynicism and a lack of trust." The PM's roadmap out of lockdown said overseas travel from England could resume from May 17.