CRAIG Williams has laughed off suggestions he was sleeping during Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement on the impending lockdown coming into force in England on Thursday.

A video clip from Parliament TV from Monday’s briefing to MPs was posted on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, where the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, calls upon Montgomeryshire MP Mr Williams to speak after the prime minister had finished. But confusion then follows where Mr Williams does not respond, and the social media clip suggests he was not paying attention, or even sleeping.

But Mr Williams refuted such suggestions, telling the County Times: “I certainly was not sleeping.”

Mr Williams, who has been Montgomeryshire MP since 2019, retaining the North Powys seat for the Conservatives after Glyn Davies stepped down, said: “It was yesterday (Monday) during the PM’s statement on Covid and I missed my name. The speaker says ‘Craig Williams’ and I look around going ‘who’s that’ and then he says ‘Craig Williams’ again and I stand up. I’m pretty relaxed about it. I must watch the video.”

Though he admitted he did not hear the speaker mention his name first time around, Mr Williams did eventually get to ask his intended question.

“There are several Craigs. There’s a Craig Whittaker and a Craig Williams and I just didn’t clock it was Craig Williams,” added Mr Williams.

“There was a statement on the lockdown in England so I asked what is he (prime minister) doing to make sure that the lockdowns aren’t the hokey cokey kind of lockdowns of England out, Wales in, or Wales in, England out, like before. I want them to be aligned.

“I suppose with some good clipping you could try and embarrass me. But I’ve got plenty of defences. I’m more than happy to just laugh at it and point to what I thought was a question that people in Montgomeryshire would like. You can watch Parliament TV and the whole thing and judge for yourself, I’m not sure there’s too much of an issue there.”

While Wales is in the midst of a 17-day “firebreak” lockdown that ends next Monday, November 9, Mr Johnson announced over the weekend that England will be subject to a month-long lockdown from this Thursday.

The Prime Minister did insist though that the UK is not going back into full-scale lockdown.

He told the House of Commons that schools, colleges, universities and childcare would remain open, unlike in the first lockdown which began in March.

Labour leader Kier Starmer reiterated his support for the government’s latest plans but said their slow response to the second wave would have a terrible “human cost”.