WILL THIS NIGHTMARE EVER END?

• Christmas plans shattered for 16m by tier 4 lockdown • PM blames new mutant virus strain but faces Tory anger • As across the nation, shocked families ask...

CHRISTMAS was wrecked for millions of families last night after Boris Johnson plunged the country into a draconian new lockdown.

The Prime Minister blamed his U-turn on a rampant new mutant strain of the virus, but faced fury from Tory MPs including one former party leader who said ‘heads must roll’ if scientists had not provided enough warning to Ministers.

During a sombre televised address, Mr Johnson put more than 16 million people in London and swathes of Southern England into new tier 4 restrictions, which prevent people from leaving their homes for all but exceptional reasons.

The rules prohibit households from mixing

indoors, or travelling outside the area. It means a third of people in England can only meet one other person from another household and even then only in an outdoor space – even on Christmas Day.

For the rest of the country, three households will now be allowed to meet only on Christmas Day rather than the previous five-day period.

The measures will be reviewed within two weeks, but officials admitted they are pessimistic about them being lifted then.

Mr Johnson’s dire message came just days after he said it would be ‘inhuman’ to ‘cancel Christmas’. Speaking from Downing Street, he said he had made his decision with a ‘heavy heart’, adding: ‘When the science changes, we must change our response. And when the virus changes its method of attack, we must change our method of defence.

‘I sincerely believe there is no alternative open to me. Without action, the evidence suggests that infections would soar, hospitals would become overwhelmed and many thousands more would lose their lives.

‘Yes, Christmas this year will be different, very different, but we must be realistic. We are sacrificing the chance to see our loved ones this Christmas so that we have a better chance of protecting their lives so that we can see them at future Christmases. And as sure as night follows day, we’ll beat back this virus, we’ll defeat it and reclaim our lives.’

Under the new measures, which took effect from midnight, residents in tier 4 should stay at home unless they need to travel for work, childcare or other limited exceptions. Non- essential shops, gyms and personal care services such as hairdressers and nail bars are closed.

People must not enter or leave tier 4 areas and work from home if they can, although previous exemptions for education, childcare and exercise will remain. Places of worship can stay open.

Tier 4 applies to Greater London, Kent, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, most of Surrey and Essex, plus Gosport, Havant, Portsmouth, Rother, Hastings and Peterborough.

The move came after Government scientists Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance told the Prime Minister at a No 10 meeting on Friday that the new variant of coronavirus was significantly more easily transmitted than the normal strain.

It has already helped to push up infections in London by two-thirds in the past fortnight and, left unchecked, it could prove catastrophic, they warned.

Last night, the Government said there was no evidence to suggest the new variant causes a higher mortality rate nor that it would reduce the effectiveness of vaccines or other treatments.

However, Ministers expect countries to impose travel bans on UK citizens to prevent the new strain from spreading. The UK has informed the World Health Organisation about the mutant strain.

As families hurriedly changed Christmas arrangements, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith seized on claims that the new strain had first been identified as early as September but No 10 was only informed of its potential danger last week. ‘If scientists knew about this back in September, why has it been so late in t he day t hat t he Government has received anything like the level of information required?’ he said.

‘If this failure to inform Ministers turns out to be a competence issue among key scientists then heads surely must roll.’

In other developments on one of the darkest days in the crisis:

• Wales was also placed into a tier 4 lockdown overnight and Scotland will move to tier 4 of its five tiers from Boxing Day, with a ban on travel from Scotland to the rest of the UK;

• The AA said there had been a ‘miniexodus’ from tier 4 areas after Mr Johnson’s announcement as families raced to beat the new lockdown at midnight;

• Another 534 deaths were recorded yesterday along with 27,052 new cases, taking the total so far to more than two million;

• The Prime Minister said 350,000 people have received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and with approval for the

Oxford vaccine expected before the end of the month, up to two million people a week may soon receive the jab; US President Donald Trump criticised Mr Johnson, tweeting: ‘We don’t want to have lockdowns. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself!’

Asked for his advice to people who ‘had their bags packed’ to visit relatives over Christmas, Prof Whitty said: ‘My short answer would be: please unpack it.’

Tory MP Steve Baker lamented a ‘sad day’, adding: ‘Lockdowns have failed in slowing the transmission of Covid. Now Government expects people to sacrifice sharing Christmas with family and friends, just a few days after promising the opposite. We need a clear exit strategy from this nightmarish cycle.’

Mark Harper, a former Tory chief whip and a leading lockdown sceptic, called for the new rules to be put to a vote in the Commons, but Government sources said doing so would cost ‘a vital few days’. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged Mr Johnson to ‘get a grip’ on the crisis.

It is understood police will enforce only ‘egregious breaches’ of the new rules.

Last night, Metropolitan Police Commander Alex Murray said: ‘Officers will be deployed to take action against those people whose selfish action risks jeopardising the health of Londoners.’

Mr Johnson was briefed on the scale of the crisis on Friday, including hospital bed occupancy running at 89 per cent and some trusts forced to cancel nonurgent procedures. Areas with the mutant strain have seen higher increases in hospitalisations: 36 per cent in Eastern England, 34 per cent in London and 28 per cent in the South East.

A source close to the discussions said: ‘The PM really doesn’t want to do this but he was clear this is another twist and turn of Covid.

‘But 350,000 people have been vaccinated. The Oxford/AstraZeneca [vaccine] will maybe get approved within a week. The vaccinations will catch up with this quite quickly. We’ve got to get on with getting vulnerable groups injected as fast as we possibly can.’

With non-essential shops closed in large parts of the country for the busiest weeks of the year, business groups called for urgent additional support.

‘When the science changes we must change our response’