Christmas coronavirus relaxation plans under threat as urgent talks held between leaders

Urgent talks were due to be held between leaders of the devolved administrations and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove at 5pm, as calls mounted to scrap plans for an easing of Covid-19 restrictions for five days.

Downing Street admitted today that the easing of rules for five days to allow households to form “bubbles” was being kept “under constant review”.

It comes after 46 coronavirus deaths were recorded in Yorkshire’s hospitals today, bringing the total to 5,393.

Nationally, 506 deaths in people who had tested positive for the disease in the last 28 days were recorded, bringing the total to 64,908.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on the Government to convene an urgent Cobra meeting over the plans.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, he accused ministers of having “lost control of infections” and warned that “the situation has clearly taken a turn for the worse since the decision about Christmas was taken”.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon argued there was a case for lessening the planned freedom, but her Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford said the current plans were a “hard-won agreement” and he will “not lightly put it aside”.

It comes after a rare joint editorial from the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal calling for the “rash” decision to be scrapped. They said the Government “is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives”.

And Professor John Edmunds, a member of the Sage advisory panel,, said: “From a purely epidemiological standpoint we should not relax our guard at Christmas, particularly as the prevalence of Covid in the community remains dangerously high.

“On the other hand, it is clear that many people intend to meet up with friends and family over the holiday period, so the current rules are an attempt to find a balance between the urge to see our loved ones and the need to control transmission.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We have set out the guidance for the Christmas bubbling arrangements. But… we obviously keep all advice under constant review.”

Reducing the planned easing may further anger Tory backbenchers who oppose restrictions, but a YouGov poll suggested 57 per cent of Britons believe the relaxation should be scrapped.

Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) of Tory lockdown sceptics, suggested a parliamentary vote should be held if the Government wants to change the Christmas restrictions.