AN MP says he is aware of the source of a coronavirus outbreak in Kirklees.

The health secretary Matt Hancock announced there had been two outbreaks across the UK - Kirklees and parts of Leicester. 

Barry Sheerman (Labour and Co-operative, Huddersfield) said he was "surprised" to hear the announcement.

He took the Twitter to say: "Surprised to learn of a serious outbreak of Coronavirus cases in Kirklees from No10 briefing apparently associated with meat processing plant in Cleckheaton!"

Another MP Jason McCartney (Conservative, Colne Valley) said he understands the outbreak was in a "private workplace".

He said: "Have just spoken to Kirklees Council’s Director of Public Health about the reported COVID outbreak in Kirklees - it’s at a private workplace, not a care home - testing and tracing underway."

In the briefing, Mr Hancock revealed mobile testing units sent in to help track down positive cases.

He said: “There are these local outbreaks, we’ve seen them all the way through.

“And we now have the system in place to be able to spot them the best we can and then take that local action.

“It is natural that as the lockdown lifts slightly, we’ve always said that the next move is for more localised action in order to tackle outbreaks where we find them.”

Mr Hancock told the Downing Street press conference that the local action committee was the formal process for deciding where measures were needed.

He said the local director of public health and the council were “heavily involved” in dealing with an outbreak in Kirklees.

Read more: Mobile testing units sent into Kirklees amid Covid-19 'outbreak'