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Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove will speak to delegate nations later this afternoon about relaxing coronavirus rules next week over Christmas, Sky News understands.
The call is expected to take place around 5 p.m.
COVID-19 updates live from the UK and around the world
Sky News understands that possible alternative options that could arise include:
- Keep the rules as they are, but toughen the messages
- Reduce the number of days the rules are relaxed
- Reduce the number of households that are allowed to mix
- Still allowing travel but restricting it to the same region
- Moving the window to another time.
According to plans agreed with the decentralized administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, up to three households will be able to form a “Christmas bubble” and meet between 23 and 27 December.
But the government faces increasing calls to rethink its relaxation of restrictions during the holiday period, amid rising infection rates in some parts of the country.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs on Monday that the past week had seen “very sharp exponential increases of the virus in London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire.”
In a sign that there may be resistance to a shift in focus among decentralized nations, Wales Prime Minister Mark Drakeford described the four-nation approach to Christmas as a “hard-won deal” and said “no. will put aside lightly. ” .
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged Boris Johnson to think again, a call that has been echoed by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
In a letter to the prime minister, Sir Keir said that while he understood that people would want to spend time with their loved ones after a “terrible year”, the situation “has clearly worsened since the decision about Christmas was made.” taken”.
And Khan told Sky News: “What I would say to the government is that I’m not sure that it did well, in fact I am sure that it has not done well in relation to the Christmas breaks.”
Two leading medical journals have said that ministers must “follow the most cautious examples of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands” and not relax the rules.
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The mayor of London believes the government should think again about allowing households to mingle at Christmas.
In a rare joint editorial, the British Medical Journal and the Health Service Journal said the government should “reverse its reckless decision to allow domestic mixing and instead extend the levels during the five-day Christmas period.”
The government is “about to make another big mistake that will cost many lives,” the magazines warned.
Speaking at a regular briefing with journalists earlier, the prime minister’s spokesman said it was still the “intention” of the government to allow up to three households to mingle over Christmas.
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Steve Barclay says people shouldn’t “misunderstand” the government about Christmas behavior.
The spokesman said the data will be kept “under constant review,” but the ministers wanted “to give families and friends the option to meet.”
Conservative MP and former Minister Mark Harper, who chairs the COVID Recovery Group (CRG) of skeptics of the Conservative lockdown, has suggested that MPs should get a vote if the government chooses to change Christmas restrictions.
Raising a point of order in the Commons, he said: “Am I right in thinking, Madam Vice President, since this House explicitly voted the regulations governing Christmas that if there were any proposals to change them, that decision should not be one for ministers only, but should it be returned to this House for a vote before Christmas? “
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Health Secretary Matt Hancock says people need to be careful now if they want to socialize over Christmas.
Vice President Dame Rosie Winterton responded, “As I understand it, ministers may have the power to change Christmas regulations without going back to the House.
“They have taken that power. They have obviously expressed a point of view that it would be desirable for them to return, but as I understand it, they have the power to modify them if they see fit.”
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