Independent Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston was busy calling for stricter restrictions days before they were announced by the Health Secretary yesterday. Back on Tuesday Preston said “our infection rate is growing at an alarming rate and Covid has already caused too much damage and pain to families around our town for us to stand by” adding it was “time to act”, asking the Government for tighter restrictions. Yet upon their announcement, Preston was scathing, calling the new measures “unacceptable” and adding “as things stand we defy the government”.

He is in the same boat as Labour’s calamity Hartlepool MP Mike Hill, who on Wednesday called for tighter restrictions, only to slam the imposition of harsher restrictions on Thursday evening.

Mayor Preston’s argument is that he asked for different restrictions that did not go as far as those imposed on other parts of the North East. Yet Guido can reveal a council communication that was sent from one senior house official to another council, showing that Middlesborough did ask for the same restrictions that were imposed on the “LA7” – those other parts of the North East. Oops.

Read the leaked communication below: