The government intends to press ahead with relaxed coronavirus restrictions for the festive period but is keeping its guidance “under review”, said the prime minister’s official spokesperson.
Boris Johnson’s spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied reports that ministers are discussing options to tighten the rules around Christmas.
He told a Westminster briefing the data would be kept “under constant review” but it is the government’s “intention” to allow the relaxed rules to go ahead.
The editors of the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal have published a joint editorial calling for the relaxed Christmas rules to be cancelled, warning that the plans are a “major error that will cost many lives”.
It comes as London mayor Sadiq Khan urged the government to review the plans to allow up to three household to mix over the festive period, amid fears that cases will surge in January. the capital, along with parts of Essex and Hertfordshire, will enter the harshest tier of coronavirus restrictions from a minute past midnight tonight.
However, ministers have said people should “do the minimum” if they visit their family over the festive period.