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media caption Tracy Brabin on new Covid travel guidelines in Kirklees.
Surge testing for Covid will begin in parts of Kirklees on Wednesday, amid criticism of chaotic and confusing government travel guidance.
The advice for areas hardest hit by the Indian variant was published online on Friday without an announcement, with local leaders not formally notified.
West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin called the decision to update the guidance without fanfare as shocking .
The government said it intended to take a national approach to lifting rules.
Speaking in Dewsbury, Ms Brabin said: The community of Kirklees has absolutely suffered [over] this last year. We ve been in some version of restrictions for over a year.
Labour leader Keir Starmer condemns advised North Tyneside restrictions as utterly shameful
The Government was accused of imposing local lockdowns after quietly issuing advice to eight parts of the country
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Labour leader Keir Starmer has accused the Government of imposing local lockdowns on eight areas of the country including North Tyneside.
A senior Government minister said she was “surprised” to hear local leaders declare that they were not told about fresh guidance calling on people in Indian variant hotspot areas to limit their travel and social interactions.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said the updated guidance, affecting areas such as Bolton and Leicester, had not come “out of the blue”.
The updated advice issued on Friday – which is not law – was published on the Government website without an official announcement, encouraging people in areas including Kirklees and the London borough of Hounslow not to meet indoors in a bid to spread the halt of the highly-transmissible mutation.