THE BLEAKEST MIDWINTER

■ 38million now living in Tier 3 ■ Fears of third lockdown grow ■ And Boris raises new No Deal threat

BRITAIN faces the ‘bleakest of midwinters’ amid fears of a third national lockdown.

Tier Three restrictions were extended yesterday so that two thirds of homes in England – and 38million people – can now expect to go into the new year under the toughest curbs.

Swathes of the Home Counties will join London in the highest tier tomorrow while Manchester and the North East were told they could not move down a grade despite recording fewer cases.

Experts fear the decisions will not be enough to avert more draconian measures because Covid is surging nationally.

Wales is going into another lockdown on December 28 and Northern Ireland last night backed plans for a six- week shutdown starting on Boxing Day.

Scottish leaders said that tougher virus restrictions after Christmas – including a lockdown – were a ‘possibility’.

Tory MP Rob Butler said the tier moves heralded ‘the bleakest of midwinters, especially for hospitality businesses’.

Further downbeat news came when Boris Johnson said a No Deal Brexit was likely unless the EU gave ground on trade talks.

Teachers were last night told that they will have to help mass test millions of

secondary school pupils – while in other developments:

■ Rishi Sunak extended until May the £5 billion a month furlough scheme amid fears that tough virus restrictions could extend beyond Easter;

■ Fears of a third wave mounted as daily Covid cases jumped again to 35,383, although this included 11,000 from Wales which were not recorded earlier this month because of a computer glitch;

■ London emerged as the new Covid hotspot with 319.3 cases per 100,000 people in the week to December 13, up more than 50 per cent from 199.9 in the previous week;

■ Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned that the combined impact of Covid and lockdowns would have a ‘substantial’ impact on health, education and poverty for years;

■ Mr Johnson warned that Brexit talks were now in a ‘serious situation’ following a phone call with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen – although fishing rights now seem to be the only major sticking point;

■ Priti Patel urged families to cancel Christmas plans that involve travelling long distances, as Labour called for the fiveday festive amnesty to be axed altogether;

■ Matt Hancock said the situation in Kent had become so dire that everyone in the county should now ‘behave as if they have the virus and are trying not to pass it on to somebody else’;

■ Former minister Tobias Ellwood apologised after Downing Street criticised him for breaching Covid restrictions by speaking at a Christmas dinner attended by 27 people.

A Downing Street spokesman refuysed to rule out a third lockdown and would only say: ‘We will obviously keep the latest data and trends under review.’

But a government source acknowledged that soaring cases in the runup to Christmas, meant the situation was likely to remain ‘grim’ until February. Labour leader Keir Starmer said he was concerned the tier system was ‘just not strong enough to control the virus’.

Boris Johnson assured Tory MPs last month that ministers would take a more ‘granular’ approach to the Covid tiers in future, following anger that many rural areas with low case numbers were being lumped in with nearby urban hotspots.

But the first review of the tier allocations yesterday saw only a tiny number of areas move down the scale, while many more were moved up to the top tier.

Mr Hancock told MPs he regretted having to impose the curbs but said there was ‘a strong view right across Government that these actions are necessary’. Under Tier Three, pubs and restaurants can offer only takeaway or delivery and indoor entertainment venues, such as cinemas, bowling alleys and soft play centres must close.

Indoor socialising with other households is banned in both of the top two tiers, which now cover 98 per cent of England.

Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Peterborough, Hertfordshire, Surrey (with the exception of Waverley), Hastings and Rother (on the Kent border of East Sussex), and Portsmouth, Gosport and Havant in Hampshire were all yesterday catapulted into Tier Three.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said he was ‘not surprised but very disappointed’ to remain in Tier Three, despite now having a lower case rate than London did when it was placed in Tier Two.

He added: ‘It feels like if the North has rising cases, the North goes under restrictions; if London and the South East has rising cases, everyone stays under restrictions.’

The longterm effects of the pandemic will be felt across the country for many years, Professor Whitty said last night.

Writing in the chief medical officer’s annual report about national health trends, he said: ‘The combined economic impact of Covid and countermeasures to reduce the size of the Covid waves are likely to be substantial.’