THE WORST NOËL - AND AGONY SET TO LAST MONTHS!

Hancock’s grim warning on lockdown that’s hit 16m and could spread further

MILLIONS of families face living under Tier Four restrictions for months, Matt Hancock said yesterday.

Warning that the draconian lockdown could be extended nationwide, the Health Secretary said coronavirus was now ‘ out of control’ following the emergence of a fastspreading new variant.

Boris Johnson imposed a tough new round of restrictions on London and much of the South East on Saturday, effectively plunging more than 16million people into lockdown. Shops, gyms, hairdressers and beauty salons have been ordered to shut again, with residents told not to leave Tier Four.

In his embarrassing U-turn, the Prime Minister also slashed a Christmas amnesty from five days to just one and cancelled get-togethers completely in Tier

Four. Three days earlier he had said it would be ‘inhuman’ to do so.

Mr Hancock acknowledged yesterday that many were angry with the Government for forcing families to cancel their Christmas plans. But he said the new variant posed ‘an enormous challenge, until we can get the vaccine rolled out to protect people. This is what we face over the next couple of months’.

The Health Secretary suggested other parts of the country would also be plunged into Tier Four if a significant number of cases of the mutant virus emerged.

One senior Conservative MP called for Mr Hancock to resign over the shambolic handling of the Christmas rules.

And furious Tories demanded a recall of Parliament to debate and vote on the changes to pandemic laws, which were made unilaterally by Mr Hancock in the early hours of yesterday.

Covid cases hit a daily record of 35,928 yesterday – almost double the previous week. There were also 326 deaths, up from 144 a week earlier. As the case rate in London reached 468 per 100,000, three times the level in the North West:

■ Germany, France, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Austria suspended travel from Britain, trying to protect themselves from the new strain;

■ France also banned British freight lorries, adding to the chaos at Channel ports;

■ Mr Hancock refused to rule out the closure of schools, which are already facing delays to next term;

■ Tory sources confirmed Tier Four travel curbs mean the Prime Minister will spend Christmas in Downing Street, rather than his country retreat Chequers;

■ In a rare bright spot, the number vaccinated hit around 500,000 last night;

■ Officials voiced hopes that the Oxford jab could be approved this week;

■ Mr Hancock condemned ‘totally irresponsible’ travellers who piled on to trains out of London on Saturday night before Tier Four came in;

■ British Transport Police stepped up patrols to stop residents leaving London and South East;

■ Scottish police doubled patrols along the border after Nicola Sturgeon imposed a ban on arrivals from England;

■ Business leaders called for more support, amid warnings that tens of thousands of jobs could go;

■ Lockdown-busting scientist Neil Ferguson has been quietly reinstated as a Government adviser and was involved in the Christmas shutdown decision;

■ A YouGov poll found 67 per cent back the Christmas curbs but 61 per cent think the Government has handled the situation badly;

■ Labour’s Keir Starmer called on Mr Johnson to apologise for ‘indecision and weak leadership’ over Christmas rules;

■ Wales went into lockdown for the third time, meaning 21million UK residents are now under the toughest restrictions.

Mr Hancock yesterday said a third national lockdown was ‘not inevitable’. But a Government source said ministers would not hesitate to extend Tier Four if necessary. ‘We need to see what the impact of Tier Four is,’ the source said. ‘The new strain is pretty widespread in London and the South East, which is very worrying, but in other parts of the country the tier system is still working. ‘If it is contained within London and the South East, that’s one thing.

‘But if people are leaving that region and potentially spreading it to the rest of the country then that is a big problem. Another lockdown is not out of the question.’

In a bid to head off a Tory mutiny, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove held seminars for MPs on the mutant Covid strain by video link.

But former chief whip Mark Harper led the demands for parliament to be recalled.

Sir Charles Walker, vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench Tories, accused ministers of delaying the decision to cancel Christmas until MPs had left for the festive break.

He called on Mr Hancock to con

sider resigning, telling BBC Radio 4: ‘The Government, in my view, knew on Thursday, possibly even Wednesday, that they were going to pull the plug on Christmas but they waited till Parliament had gone. That, on top of everything else, is a resigning matter. I am not asking for the Government to collapse. I am asking for a secretary of state to take some responsibility.’

A string of his colleagues joined calls for Parliament to be recalled.

But Mr Hancock said the need to act fast had made it impossible to consult. He said there would be a retrospective vote next month.

The Government last night published minutes from Friday’s meeting of the Nervtag scientific group, whose findings persuaded the PM to lock down a third of the nation and scrap Christmas plans he had amended only two days earlier. The committee, whose members include Professor Ferguson, warned the new strain spreads 71 per cent faster than standard Covid. It may also raise the R-rate.