TWO MPs from south Essex joined a mini-rebellion of Conservatives who voted against the new rules on face masks. 

The Government's decision to make face masks mandatory in shops and on public transport were rubber-stamped in the Commons as MPs voted in favour of the new law. 

There was also similar support for new laws on making travellers self-isolate when they arrive in the UK. 

But there was some opposition from Conservative MPs, with 19 voting against face mask rules and 35 against self-isolation regulations. 

Both Wickford and Rayleigh MP, Mark Francois, and Thurrock's Jackie Doyle-Price voted against the new rules.

The new laws also mean anyone who has been in contact with a suspected Omicron case must self-isolate regardless of their vaccine status.

Former minister Sir Christopher Chope labelled the regulations “oppressive, authoritarian and dictatorial” as he warned it would have an “adverse effect” on lives and livelihoods.

He argued ministers had produced “no evidence whatsoever” to show the impact of the regulations on protecting public health.

The Tory MP told the Commons: “These regulations are part of a scaremongering propaganda campaign on the part of the Government, which is really designed to try to stop or restrict social interaction between social animals who happen to be living in the United Kingdom.

“That I think is potentially the most damaging aspect of these regulations before us today. “They’re designed to supress freedom of the individual and supress social contact, and they’re doing that through unreasonable fear-mongering.”

Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, said there were “serious concerns” about the “efficacy of what is being proposed”, and warned against “mission creep”.

Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet) asked Sir Graham about the “madness” of moving through a cycle of restrictions, vaccines and accompanying freedoms, followed by variants and new restrictions.

Sir Graham said: “I think we should all be afraid of the madness of that kind of policy. “And the difficulty is that, maybe 18 months ago, when some of us started raising these concerns, it was possible for some people to suggest that we were being fanciful. We’ve now lived it for 18 months, and we can see this reaching ahead.

“Now again we see the Government’s immediate assumption that what it should reach for is new controls, new compulsion. New rules that will be inflicted on the British people.

“And I think we need to move away from that, move back to a world where we trust people.”