Tiering it down: Boris Johnson backtracks on Covid restrictions
Boris Johnson has bent to the demands of Tory backbench MPs by softening England’s future Covid restrictions regime.
Johnson wrote to MPs telling them that people stuck in the strictest Covid restrictions will have them downgraded next month, while also promising that the tier system will end earlier than expected.
Millions of people put into Tier 3 restrictions this week will be downgraded to Tier 2 at the next review on 16 December to ensure they can patronise hospitality venues in the lead up to Christmas, according to the Sunday Times.
Areas in Tier 3 include Greater Manchester, Birmingham and the whole of Kent.
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The tier system is now set to be scrapped in February, instead of April as previously suggested by some ministers earlier last week.
Johnson told MPs in the letter that the restrictions “have a sunset of 3 February”.
It is hoped that by this time Covid vaccines will have had a reasonably wide rollout. The Financial Times reported yesterday that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine could be rolled out from 7 December across the UK.
The climbdown came after 70 Conservative MPs threatened to vote against the new Covid restrictions in parliament on Tuesday.
This would have meant the government could only pass legislation with the help of Sir Keir Starmer and Labour.
The Prime Minister promised to “publish further analysis of the health, economic and social impacts of Covid and the measures taken to suppress them” before the House of Commons vote.
Conservative MP, and ringleader of the party’s Covid rebels, Steve Baker called Johnson’s new position “constructive”.
Johnson’s U-turn comes just after a piece written by Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove yesterday, which said restrictions should count for entire counties and that hospitals would be overwhelmed without the new measures.
Tory MP Mark Harper told Times Radio today that Gove needs to “show us the evidence” on Covid restrictions.
“If he genuinely thinks, and this would weigh heavily with me, if he genuinely thinks that hospitals would be overwhelmed, then show us the modeling and the evidence that he sees,” he said.
“So the all MPs can see it, and we can take that decision.”