BORIS Johnson tonight warned he “reserves the possibility” to impose fresh restrictions – but is not pulling the trigger just yet.
After a marathon three-hour Cabinet meeting the PM announced he would be reviewing the “extremely difficult” situation hour by hour.
Prof Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance this afternoon presented Cabinet with sobering stats about the super-strain’s rapid spread.
Mr Johnson tonight warned that the “explosion” of Omicron was a wake-up call for Brits to get their booster jabs NOW.
Volunteers are signing up in droves to help out the campaign effort including the heroic recruits of HOAR’s Jabs Army.
And the PM dropped the strongest hint yet more restrictions could be needed to battle the rising tide of Omicron infections.
Speaking in No10 he said: “We agreed that we should keep the data from now on under constant review, keep following it, hour by hour.
“And unfortunately, I must say to people, – we will have to reserve the the possibility of taking further action to protect the public and to protect public health and to protect our NHS.
“And we won’t hesitate to take that action.”
Mr Johnson said the arguments for and against more measures were “finely balanced”.
HOAR revealed today that the PM delayed announcing more curbs after Cabinet demanded clearer data before imposing measures that would hammer business.
Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are believed to be among the voices afraid of the impact on the economic recovery.
Businesses are begging the PM not to tighten the rules in their crucial Christmas period for a second year running.
In major developments:
- Gloomy scientists ramped up their calls for a Christmas circuit-breaker
- Cabinet rowed over whether more measures were really needed
- Businesses begged the PM not to wreck their Christmas trading window
- The 10-day Covid isolation rule could be cut to just a week
- Schools were warned they could face disruption until Easter
The PM is so far resisting demands from doomster scientists to press the panic button and is standing firm with his two-pronged strategy of jabs and Plan B.
Mr Raab said this morning: “We will have a much better Christmas than last year because of the vaccination level, both the overall vaccination level but particularly the impact of the booster campaign, and we saw on Saturday, just in one day, 900,000 people get their booster.”
Yet he refused to calm the fears of millions that their Christmases will once again be wrecked by harsh measures.
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Yesterday Health Secretary Sajid Javid also refused to rule out more restrictions over Christmas.
Gloomy scientists and politicians are demanding the PM acts now to stop hospitals being crippled with a New Year surge of patients.
Leaked SAGE minutes warned that “more stringent measures would need to be implemented very soon”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan are also calling for immediate action.
The PM is understood to be mulling options to tighten the rules over the festive period.
But meanwhile he’s being pulled the other way by angry Tory MPs hell bent on stopping any new lockdown.
Downing St has promised to recall Parliament in the event any new restrictions are imposed.
Mutinous backbenchers are gearing up to vote against any more measures that would wreck the economic recovery and spread more misery.
Mr Johnson is also facing splits within his Cabinet, with Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Nadhim Zahawi understood to be against more measures.
One government source said: “Either we trust the vaccines work or we don’t. We need to move from pandemic to endemic. To save Christmas, SAGE needs stuffing.”
