DON’T STEAL OUR SUMMER!

As Boris warns lockdown could drag on, Tory MPs issue Covid demand...

TORY MPs last night demanded Boris Johnson agree to a timetable for lifting Covid lockdown restrictions by the beginning of March.

But on a visit to flood-hit Manchester, the Prime Minister said it was too early to tell when the crippling curbs would end.

Downing Street even refused to rule out the possibility of the third national lockdown stretching beyond the spring and into summer.

The 70- strong Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs is urging the PM to begin lifting the lockdown no later than the start of March and has called for the publication of a timetable to prevent further slippage.

‘People must see light at the end of the tunnel and feel hope for the future and businesses need to be able to plan our recovery,’ said the group’s chairman Mark Harper.

Government scientists yesterday urged ministers to delay the reopening of pubs and restaurants until at least May to prevent another wave of the virus. Whitehall sources suggested schools could remain shut to most pupils until after Easter.

Ministers meet today to discuss draconian travel curbs aimed at keeping out mutant Covid strains but which could also wreck the summer holiday plans of millions of families. Priti Patel last night said it was ‘far too early to speculate’ about whether foreign holidays would be possible this summer.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of the UK Hospitality trade body, said many pubs and restaurants would ‘struggle to survive’ if they were forced to keep their doors closed until May. She added: ‘If we are forced to wait for a longer period then unfortunately there will be very little left of the hospitality sector – and the 3.2million people who work in it – to reopen at that point in May.’

In recent weeks, the Prime Minister has repeatedly spoken of a return to normality this spring. Last month he said: ‘ We’re no longer resting on the mere hope that we can return to normal next year in the spring but rather the sure and certain knowledge that we will succeed.’

But asked directly whether the country was ‘looking at summer rather than spring’ for an easing of lockdown yesterday, he replied: ‘I think it’s too early to say when we’ll be able to lift some of some of the restrictions.’

The PM said the new variant of the disease ‘does spread very fast indeed’, adding: ‘It unquestionably will be a very tough few weeks ahead.’

No10 also refused to rule out an extended lockdown when asked to clarify Mr Johnson’s remarks.

Asked directly whether he could rule out the lockdown lasting into the summer, the PM’s official spokesman said: ‘We will continue to keep all of the scientific evidence and data under review.

‘It remains our position that we want to ease restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so, but in order for us to do that we need to see the transmission rates of the virus come down and we need to see the pressure on the NHS reduce.’

A Government source insisted that the PM’s comments did not amount to a change in the timetable for easing the lockdown.

‘ People should not read too much into this,’ the source said. ‘ The PM wants to reopen as quickly as we safely can, but cases are very high and only coming down slowly – there has to be a degree of caution.’

Former Tory chief whip Mr Harper said the public now needed a timetable for easing the lockdown. Mr Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said achieving the Government’s target to vaccinate the 15million most vulnerable by February 15 should clear the way for restrictions to be lifted three weeks later when the vaccines had taken effect. ‘ Covid causes serious harm and it’s vital we control it effectively,’ he said. ‘ But this cycle of lockdowns and restrictions cause immense damage too – to people’s health, livelihoods and businesses.

‘Once the top four risk groups have been vaccinated and fully protected... the Government must start easing the restrictions.’ But Government scientists and health chiefs warned it was much too soon to even contemplate easing restrictions.

Dr Vin Diwakar, medical director for the NHS in London said the pandemic was ‘the biggest health emergency to face this country since the Second World War’.

Rounding on those still flouting the lockdown rules, he told a Downing Street press briefing: ‘For me and my colleagues in the NHS breaking the rules.... is like switching on a light in the middle of the blackout in the Blitz.’

And Dr Marc Baguelin, of Imperial College London, who sits on a sub-group of the Government’s Sage committee, said the early opening of the hospitality sector would lead to a rise in Covid cases. He told BBC Radio Four’s World at One programme: ‘Something of this scale, if it was to happen earlier than May, would generate a bump in transmission, which is already really bad.’

UPON ordering the national lockdown last March, Boris Johnson insisted that Britain would have Covid beaten in 12 weeks.

Yesterday he hinted, to the despair of the public, that the punishing rules might now stretch into the summer.

Scientists on Sage, insulated in their academic bubble from the grim realities of life, are clamouring for the population to remain under house arrest.

So far, the country has accepted curbs on their liberties with remarkable fortitude. But every time we seen a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, it disappears.

Of course, revoking restrictions immediately is not an option. Covid deaths are still frighteningly high and hospitals are struggling to cope.

But the costs of a seemingly endless lockdown are cataclysmic. Pubs and restaurants face wipe-out. The High Street is losing 320 shops a week. Museums and galleries are gasping for air. And Eurostar teeters on the brink of collapse.

Our saviour is the vaccine. Despite twitchiness about supplies, the roll- out continues apace, with 4.9million injected.

Once those most at risk have been inoculated, and who account for nine in ten deaths, isn’t that the time for the Prime Minister to loosen the reins?

He could be straight with us on the timetable out of this crisis. Why won’t he?

WHEN not posing for photo opportunities, London mayor Sadiq Khan wages war against the motorist. Under cover of promoting healthier living during the pandemic, he closed countless roads to cars and introduced pop-up cycle lanes. But now judges say the Labour politician acted unlawfully by discriminating against those who cannot walk or ride a bike, such as the disabled. One consequence? The schemes – which worsen congestion and pollution – could be scrapped. Bravo, Mr Khan!

EVEN though he’s the father of English literature, Leicester University thinks there’s no point studying Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It plans to expunge all medieval works from courses to ‘decolonise the curriculum’. Instead, students will be taught modules in race, diversity and sexuality. What a depressing triumph of virtue- signalling over educational rigour and common sense. Early classics are the keys to our language and literary history. Axing them is an act of vandalism. Not so much Paradise Lost as marbles lost.