Radio host says Tories rejecting Boris Johnson’s lockdown plans ‘don’t like being told what to do’

The band of MPs, known as the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), has threatened to vote down legislation aimed at enforcing a tiered lockdown system across England if they are not given access to economic impact assessments.

Taking aim, O’Brien said: “They seems to me, this group of Conservative MPs, to be the type that rejected the law that made seat belts in car compulsory.”

He said the same gang would have been opposed to a ban on smoking inside a car with children.

“Do you remember the time people had a problem with the smoking ban? That it was an infringement of your liberties to stop killing children by breathing noxious fumes all over them?,” he said, pointing to the group.

He then explained that he was once a part of that crowd but had “grown up”.

He said: “There are two types of people in the world. People who change when the facts do and people who can’t.

“When I was working at the Express, I had a colleague who had two to three days off every month with what was described then as ‘women’s problems’.

“I used to get the hump – largely because I was jealous, because I couldn’t get two to three days off every month.

“Of course, as you get a little older and experienced, you realise that periods for some women are incredibly debilitating.

He added: “Before you realise it, you’ve allowed your envy to turn into scepticism to turn into stubbornness and so you end up opposed to something that makes perfectly good sense.”

O’Brien turned his gaze towards “Libertarians”, which he described as a catch-all term for people who opposed rules.

“This weird word ‘Libertarian’ these days comes to mean, ‘I think I should be able to do what ever the hell I want and you plebs have to obey all the rules’.

“That, in a nutshell, is Boris Johnson’s world view.

“We’ve ended up with a man who has never taken responsibility for anything in his entire life being responsible for an entire country at a time of unprecedented dangers and disruption.

“He didn’t create coronavirus but he did create Brexit, which is about to make everything infinitely worse regardless of what happens between now and the beginning of January.”

O’Brien ended his speech, reflecting: “There are two types of people in the world. People who have trust, albeit not blind trust, in authority and expertise and people who choose to believe what they prefer.”