BORIS Johnson tonight promised freedom from Covid in 2021 – but warned there would be a “hard struggle” to get there.
The PM vowed that “as the sun rises on 2021” tomorrow morning the “beacon of hope” of the new Oxford vaccine would carry the nation through.
Speaking just hours before New Year – and Brexit – the PM’s sombre but touching message to the nation looked back on a difficult year tackling the pandemic.
He promised that this would be the year Britain would finally be able to chuck away masks, bin social distancing and hug loved ones again – as soon as the vaccine was rolled out.
The PM told an anxious nation with three quarters now in Tier 4: “I believe 2021 is above all, the year when we will eventually do those everyday things that now seem lost in the past.
“Bathed in a rosy glow of nostalgia, going to the pub, concerts, theatres, restaurants, or simply holding hands with our loved ones in the normal way.”
Though Britain is “still a way off” with some “tough weeks and months ahead”, we could now see a clear way through to the end.
We are still a way off from that, and there are tough weeks and months ahead, he warned.
But he added: “We can see that illuminated sign that marks the end of the journey, and even more important, we can see with growing clarity how we are going to get there.
“And that is what gives me such confidence about 2021.”
He stressed that Brexit would deliver an “amazing moment for our country”, giving us new-found freedoms to step out onto the world stage, too.
He vowed: “We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it.
“2021 is the year we can do it.”
Admitting that most people would “be only too happy to say goodbye to the grimness of 2020”, he went on to remind the nation “that this was also the year when we rediscovered a spirit of togetherness, of community.”
The PM said: “It was a year in which we banged saucepans to celebrate the courage and self-sacrifice of our NHS staff and care home workers…
“A year in which working people pulled the stops out to keep the country moving in the biggest crisis we have faced for generations – shopworkers, transport staff, pharmacists, emergency services, everyone, you name it.
“We saw a renewed spirit of volunteering, as people delivered food to the elderly and vulnerable.
“And time after time as it became necessary to fight new waves of the virus, we saw people unite in their determination, our determination, to protect the NHS and to save lives.”
