Furious Tory MPs have warned Boris that if any more Covid restrictions are brought in over the festive season it will cost him his job. MailOnline has more.
Boris Johnson was under growing pressure last night not to impose lockdown restrictions that will ruin Christmas for the second year in a row.
The Prime Minister is considering curbs on mixing indoors in England that could be announced within days.
And Health Secretary Sajid Javid yesterday refused to rule out Covid measures coming into force before Christmas Day.
Tory MPs last night said any attempt to toughen rules before Christmas will provoke letters seeking to oust Mr. Johnson as party leader.
And ministers indicated they will not back new curbs. Rishi Sunak is understood to be arguing that they need to plot a clear route out of restrictions before they are imposed, while Liz Truss says she is “uncomfortable” with the current curbs.
It comes as the official number of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant rose by nearly 50% to 37,000 in just 24 hours.
Families are desperate to spend Christmas together after last year’s Covid lockdown rules meant millions were forced to be apart or severely scale back their celebrations.
It is understood Mr. Johnson is resisting calls for restrictions ahead of December 25th, but there are mounting fears they will be imposed after that, spoiling New Year plans for millions.
Scientists are urging the Prime Minister to bring in restrictions quickly, amid warnings that hospitals will struggle to cope with rising infection numbers.
Mr Javid repeatedly declined to rule out imposing tough restrictions before Christmas as he warned there are “no guarantees” Christmas Day will go ahead without a lockdown. The Health Secretary acknowledged that data about the Omicron variant remained incomplete – but suggested it might be necessary to make decisions before a full picture is available.
“If you wait until data is absolutely perfect it may well be too late,” he said.
The Health Secretary admitted “everything is under review” after SAGE delivered a grim assessment that the number of infections could reach two million by the end of the month without tougher restrictions – floating a “circuit breaker” ban on households mixing and closure of non-essential shops.
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