WINCHESTER’S MP Steve Brine called for an exit strategy from the current lockdown to be published.

Mr Brine said while there was no option but to try and contain the virus through current national measures, the vaccination plan must move in “lock-step” with a plan to lift restrictions.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr Brine said: "It remains my strong belief that these horrible restrictions on our lives must not be in place a day longer than required. And, to be clear, they are currently required.

"But alongside the published vaccine delivery plan – and daily figures on how we’re getting Covid done – we must give the public hope.

"We know just over 88 per cent of those likely to get seriously unwell (and sadly die) reside within the top four priority vaccine groups. My view is that given the only metric that really counts, and the reason why public support for lockdown is so high is the desire to prevent the NHS from being “overwhelmed”, logic would dictate that once that threat has gone away we can start to lift restrictions.

"We need clear heads if we want to do that. Covid-19 is not a conspiracy and it is not a hoax. We are right to take it seriously, but we are equally right to demand a plan that dismantles the most draconian of laws in lock-step with the vaccination programme.

“When we have vaccinated the highest-risk groups, what will we do? When we have completed phase one by vaccinating all those with above-average risk by late March, what will we then do? Put another way, how does success in vaccine delivery translate into a return to normal? What is the exit strategy?

“The public have put up with an awful lot. The vast majority of them have done exactly what we asked. They need hope, they need to see a path out of this, and then we can attempt to make sure that 2021 really is not the new 2020.”