Lockdown Row Reignites Feud Between Rupa Huq and Toby Young

Social commentator argues economic cost makes cure worse than the disease

The already fraught relationship between Ealing Central and Acton MP, Rupa Huq, and her constituent Toby Young has deteriorated further after they had a strongly worded exchange over the issue of the coronavirus lockdown.

The contrarian thinker wrote an article in The Critic magazine in which he challenged the orthodoxy on advising people not to leave their homes in all but the most limited circumstances. He claimed that more lives may be lost due to the economic damage caused by an unnecessarily extended lockdown and argued that, when calculating the economic cost worth paying for saving a person, the length and the quality life of the extension should be considered.

Rupa Huq responded angrily to the arguments he made saying, "Toby Young loves to court notoriety. He was unceremoniously flung out from his role as universities tsar for sexism and now this.

"Many on the right who deplore the nanny state and health and safety brigade have found it galling to see that their laissez faire ideas on economics have been quoshed by interventionism but to advocate that the shut down shuts down on 30th April which would be worth it if a few pensioners croak it is a deeply disturbing and sails dangerously close to eugenics.

"If it is the case that Toby is suffering from coronavirus symptoms I wish him a speedy recovery and would ordinarily say I hope he returns to his senses soon but with the controversial Mr Young who’s rebelled big-time from the politics of his dad, who authored Labour’s 1944 manifesto, you can never be too sure whether he’s just wanting the attention or really thinks this stuff."

The MP has been at odds with Toby Young before including the time when she spoke in parliament against his appointment to the newly formed university regulator raising controversial comments he had made in the past.

Mr Young defended his article from the attack by Rupa Huq saying, “I don’t think Rupa can have read the original piece she was reacting to — not uncommon when people comment on Twitter. Placing a monetary value on human life isn’t anything to do with ‘neoconservative’ economics. Rather, it’s a feature of health economics that all governments make use of when deciding how best to allocate resources, including Labour Governments.

"And as I made clear in my piece, it’s not just a question of weighing up the cost of the lockdown in economic terms. Economic recessions cost lives due to rises in poverty, violent crime and suicide. Before extending the lockdown indefinitely, we need to make sure the cure isn’t worse than the disease.”

56-year-old Mr Young believes he may have contracted Covid-19 having displayed symptoms since the end of last month. He says he is 'anxiously waiting to see if the disease spreads to my lungs'. He has no underlying health conditions.

Rupa Huq has had to go into isolation along with her son as the both had a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson just before he was diagnosed with the illness. Neither have shown any symptoms of the illness so far.

April 3, 2020