Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie was one of 49 Conservative MPs who voted against Government plans to delay the end of Covid restrictions by up to four weeks.

The extension was approved by 461 to 60 votes as coronavirus cases rise across the country including Stroud, which recorded 32 per 100,000 people in the week ending June 10 - up 146 per cent from the previous week.

The trend has been driven by the Delta variant, first identified in India, which experts believe is around 60 per cent more transmissible. Stroud has recorded 14 cases so far.

Following the second largest backbench rebellion of the pandemic, Ms Baillie said: “I cannot support a confused further delay of the road map in these circumstances. Now is the time to trust the British people.

“We must trust them to continue acting with caution, and we must trust them to make choices to protect the health of their friends, family and loved ones.”

She continued: “To dismiss this delay as only being four weeks is disrespectful. These weeks are crucial for many, but not least for businesses that invested money and hope in being able to trade viably next week.

She said that being involved in trying to help the wedding industry has led her to oppose the extension.

“Months of work, evidence gathering and sensible suggestions were swept aside by health officials at the last minute without explanation and against a backdrop of thousands of people hugging at the football and the cricket.

“Why reject testing, like we have in sporting events, and then make a father wear a mask walking his daughter down the aisle? He will eat a mask-less dinner with her later that day.

“What have we come to when the Government are banning dance floors? I am equally confuzzled by banning singing in churches. Our predominantly double-jabbed congregations just want to sing to God—let them sing.”

Around 20 per cent of people over the age of 18 in Stroud have not yet received their first vaccination and a total of 35 per cent have not received two doses of the jab.

There are seven people in hospital with Covid-19 in the care of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Addressing the nation on Monday, Mr Johnson said: “It’s unmistakably clear that vaccines are working and the sheer scale of the vaccine roll-out has made our position incomparably better than in previous waves.

“But now is the time to ease off the accelerator because by being cautious now we have the chance in the next four weeks to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people.”