Health secretary and West Suffolk MP Matt Hancock has revealed his step grandfather died with coronavirus last month.
Mr Hancock, who himself had Covid earlier in the year, fought back tears as he paid tribute to his relative, who caught Covid-19 in Liverpool and died on November 18, as he addressed the House of Commons ahead of the vote on the reintroduction of the tier system.
Mr Hancock also thanked Liverpool residents for helping to reduce the city’s infection rate in recent weeks.
He said: “In my family, as in so many others, we’ve lost a loving husband, a father, a grandfather to this awful disease.
“So from the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you to everyone in Liverpool for getting this awful virus under control.
“It’s down by four-fifths in Liverpool, that’s what we can do if we work together in a spirit of common humanity. We’ve got to beat this, we’ve got to beat it together.”