Gove: Britain is close to living with Covid
‘Plan B’ curbs could start to be lifted at end of this month
PLAN B restrictions could start to be lifted this month, as Michael Gove said Britain was moving towards a situation where it could ‘live with Covid’.
The measures were imposed last month and include guidance on working from home and legal requirements for masks and Covid passports in certain venues.
Downing Street is examining options to lift them in stages if Omicron cases remain too high to remove them all in one go.
Extending Covid passports, due to expire on January 26, would require another bruising clash with Tory backbenchers, which No10 wants to avoid.
But some ministers are pushing for the work from home guidance to be removed first, arguing that it causes the most
‘It will have to stop being an emergency’
damage to the economy. Mr Gove, who has consistently argued for the toughest restrictions, yesterday warned that there were ‘difficult weeks ahead’ for the NHS as the virus surges outside London.
But he said there would be ‘better times ahead’ once the current surge in cases has passed. ‘There are other coronaviruses which are endemic and with which we live – viruses tend to develop in a way whereby they become less harmful but more widespread,’ he said.
‘So, guided by the science, we can look to the progressive lifting of restrictions and, I think for all of us, the sooner the better. But we have got to keep the NHS safe.’
Mr Gove, who helped persuade Boris Johnson to impose Plan B, admitted he had been wrong to push for even tighter restrictions over Christmas.
He acknowledged he had been ‘at the more cautious end of the spectrum’ and said the PM had been right to overrule him. ‘His judgment has been vindicated,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘He argued publicly that we would be able to get through this with the booster campaign.’
Downing Street yesterday played down expectations the PM is poised to publish a Covid exit strategy, which could include winding up the test-and-trace system, ending self-isolation rules and charging for tests. A Government source said: ‘I think that sort of idea is very premature. We have got another few weeks of difficulty.’
But officials are targeting the spring for the possible lifting of all restrictions. Funding for free lateral flow tests is due to expire at the end of March, with self-isolation laws lapsing at the same time.
Although the measures could be renewed, ministers are increasingly optimistic they could be lifted at that point. Mr Gove added: ‘We are moving to a situation where it is possible to say we can live with Covid, and that the pressure on the NHS and on vital public services is abating.’
Professor Graham Medley, a member of the Government’s Sage committee, said. ‘At some point it will have to stop being an emergency but that is likely to be a phase-out rather than an active point in time where somebody can declare the epidemic over.’
Former Tory chief whip Mark Harper, leader of the Covid Recovery Group of Conservatives, warned Mr Johnson that if he sought to extend the measures he could face a revolt even larger than the 100 Conservatives who defied him when they were first introduced in December.
He said: ‘The Prime Minister sort of wants to agree with the backbenches, that we have to be realistic about living with Covid, then says he wants to keep restrictions in reserve. This is becoming an unsustainable position.’