Cumbria County Council leader Stewart Young has defended the authority after an MP labelled its behaviour "irresponsible" on the issue of schools reopening.

Barrow MP Simon Fell posted an 11-part thread on his Twitter page revealing that he had spent most of Sunday speaking to schools and reassuring parents about reopening primary schools.

He was part of a meeting between Cumbrian MPs and the schools minister Nick Gibb to address the issue.

He said: "This was all set off by a series of irresponsible tweets from Cumbria County Council, which has set hares running amongst parents and teachers alike."

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The concerns schools were closing came after the council and its director of public health, Colin Cox, sent a letter formally requesting that Cumbrian primary schools be added to the contingency framework of schools not expected to open.

Cllr Young said: "We were first and foremost trying to make sure that Cumbria is treated no different to London.

"The Government is supposed to be committed to 'levelling up'.

"If you're a parent or child in London, you're getting treated differently to the way we're getting treated here in Cumbria.

"There's been no explanation for that whatsoever.

"We actually thought the Government would respond to our very sensible suggestion, that we were included in the containment framework, which means the schools wouldn't reopen.

"But that was turned down on Sunday afternoon. We were responding to that.

%image('11337734', type='article-full', caption='Stewart Young Leader of Cumbria County Council. Cumbria House the new Carlisle offices for Cumbria County Council. The new building on Botchergate will help to bring together council employees under one roof: 12 October 2016..STUART WALKER.. 50085920F024.', alt='Stewart Young Leader of Cumbria County Council. Cumbria House the new Carlisle offices for Cumbria County Council. The new building on Botchergate will help to bring together council employees under one roof: 12 October 2016..STUART WALKER.. 50085920F024.')

Mr Cox addressed the large increase in Covid cases across the county.

"One thing we're looking at is what is called 'S gene drop-out.' When you do a PCR Covid test, it looks for a number of different genes," he said.

"One of those genes is called the S gene.

"It doesn't detect the S gene in the new variant.

"It now looks as if in Carlisle, Eden and Allerdale, the vast majority of cases are showing this S Gene target drop-out. It's almost certainly mostly associated with the new strain.

"In Copeland, Barrow and South Lakeland, it's rapidly rising – more than half now, it's probably the dominant strain.

"It's a very, very challenging situation in hospitals in the north of the county.

"It's not quite so bad in the south. And actually, particularly in Furness Infirmary, the situation is not so bad at the moment, though they do have pressures, and they do have outbreaks going on at Furness Infirmary.

"In the south, it's not so bad – but still seeing rising number of cases."

"When you see the way case rates are rising in the south, the south will (soon) not be far behind the north."

%image('12079561', type='article-full', caption='RESPONSE: Cumbria's Director of Public Health, Colin Cox', alt='RESPONSE: Cumbria's Director of Public Health, Colin Cox')

Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, who was part of the Sunday meeting between Cumbrian MPs and the schools minister, said: “I am really grateful to the Minister for Schools and officials from the Department for Education for giving up their time on a Sunday evening to speak with Cumbrian MPs.

“Local parents, pupils and staff deserve answers as to why the Government think it's not safe for schools in Tier four London to reopen but that it’s fine for schools in Tier four Cumbria.

“I pressed for clarity, consistency and for decisions to be based on evidence."

%image('11688350', type='article-full', caption='RETURN: MP Tim Farron addresses school reopening', alt='RETURN: MP Tim Farron addresses school reopening')

“I also made it very clear that the worst possible thing the Government could do right now would be to let children mix for a week before then inevitably closing schools and I think that’s the point that the county council were trying to make when they submitted the request for schools in Cumbria to stay closed."