'Likely' that Tier 4 measures will be needed in areas across the country, says Government's top scientific advisor

The Prime Minister has not denied that Tier 4 restrictions will be rolled out across larger areas of the country as a top Government advisor said more measures will need to be taken “in due course”.

Boris Johnson repeatedly did not address questions on the expansion of the measures, which amount to a lockdown, when asked at a press conference tonight.

But Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance said it was “likely” more areas would fall under the rules, where households cannot mix and people have been told to stay at home and not travel, due to the new strain of coronavirus which has upped restrictions in London and the South East.

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Sir Patrick said: “The tier decisions are not ones that are for me but I will say that the evidence of this virus is it spreads easily, it’s more transmissible. We absolutely need to make sure we’ve got the right level of restrictions in place.

Government's Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance. Photo: PAGovernment's Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance. Photo: PA
Government's Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance. Photo: PA

“I think it is likely that this will grow in numbers of the new variant across the country, and I think it’s likely therefore that measures will need to be increased in some places in due course, not reduced.”

While Mr Johnson, in answer to a question from a member of the public, said: “We looked at where the new variant was, where it was spreading and acted to restrict it there, and, of course, we will keep those measures under review every couple of weeks.”

It came after the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats advisory group (NervTag) told a Science Media Centre briefing on the new mutant variant that cases outside of Tier 4 in London and the south east of England “are increasing at similar rates” those in affected areas, and that it had a “transmission advantage” over other strains of the virus.

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However, World Health Organisation director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was “no evidence” the new strain was “more likely to cause severe disease or mortality”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Downing Street press conference. Photo: PAPrime Minister Boris Johnson at the Downing Street press conference. Photo: PA
Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Downing Street press conference. Photo: PA

Elsewhere, regional public health directors in Manchester and the West Midlands urged anyone who travelled from a Tier 4 area or Wales to self isolate upon their arrival and “assume” they have the new Covid-19 variant.

Mr Johnson also said he had spoken to French President Emmanuel Macron after France closed its borders to UK freight due to the new strain of coronavirus.

He said: “We are working with our friends across the Channel to unblock the flow of trade as fast as possible.

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“And the Government at all levels is communicating with our friends in Paris.

“I have just spoken to President Macron, we had a very good call.

“And we both understand each other’s positions and want to resolve these problems as fast as possible.”

But the PM also said: “It is vital first to stress that these delays – which are only occurring at Dover – only affect human-handled freight, and that is only 20 per cent of the total arriving from or departing to the European continent, which means the vast majority of food, medicines and other supplies are coming and going as normal.”

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But an East Yorkshire businessman today said the Government was underplaying the seriousness of the situation facing exporters.

Gary Hodgson, director of Bridlington-based Venture Seafoods, the largest crab meat producer on the east of England, had to cancel two lorry loads due to take a mix of live, chilled and frozen seafood into France.

Mr Hodgson said he'd anticipated issues with the crossing in the run up to Brexit and had sent a lot of products over in November.

But he said it was "devastating" for producers who normally would be sending daily deliveries over the festive period.

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He said the French ban due to the new strain of coronavirus was difficult to understand as drivers "have very little interaction with each other or the general public". They had also not closed the border during the first lockdown.

He added: "For Grant Shapps to say it won't cause disruption short-term, he needs to realise that all the seafood producers who are exporting at this time of year, their trucks are all stood stationary with products that have a limited shelf-life or are carrying live shellfish. It is just devastating.

"I think it sums this year up and will sum Brexit up in January. If I am honest this is the new norm.

"We are all in a state of despair - you can't just turn the supply chain on and off."

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Mr Hogdson said the financial consequences would be felt right back to the fishermen who had been out at sea on the premise that the shellfish they would be landing would fetch very high Christmas prices.

And he said it was "crucial" to get France on side: "More than any other EU country this is where all the goods transit through, not just fishery products. Unless we have frictionless trade, none of this is going to work."

Mr Johnson said: "To our international friends and partners I want to say very frankly: We understand your concerns, and I hope that everybody can see that as soon as we were briefed as a Government of the fast transmissibility of this new strain at about 3.15pm on Friday afternoon, we lodged all the necessary information with the World Health Organisation and we took prompt and decisive action the very next day to curb the spread of the variant within the UK."

After crunch talks involving members of the Cobra emergency committee to prevent the UK being cut off from the continent in the days before Christmas, Mr Johnson said discussions were taking place to “unblock the flow of trade as fast as possible”.

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He said: “It was an excellent conversation with the French President (Emmanuel Macron), he stressed he was keen, I would say, to sort it out in the next few hours if we can.

“Our teams will be working on it flat out – if we can get a result then, that would be great, but we will do it as fast as we can.”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps urged people not to travel to Kent amid the closure of the French border.

He told the press conference: “Please don’t travel to Kent.

“Most people should be staying at home, everybody in Tier 4 must at stay home and in Tier 3 stay very local.”

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Mr Johnson also said more than half a million people in the UK have now been vaccinated against Covid-19.

He said the “vast bulk” of the initial 500,000 doses had gone to people aged over 80 and those who were clinically vulnerable.

The closure of cross-Channel routes overnight alarmed businesses, including those relying on the trouble-free passage of produce into the UK, as well as holidaymakers looking to leave for the continent – all with the added complication of the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s warned that disruption in Kent, where more than 170 lorries remain backed up on roads around the Port of Dover, could hit supplies of lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit, all of which are imported from mainland Europe in the winter.

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But French transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebarri said he hoped a protocol would be agreed by European Union states “to ensure that movement from the UK can resume” after his country banned passengers and freight crossing the English Channel.

Measures being considered in France include the possibility of testing the country’s nationals to allow them to return from the UK.

Transport Secretary Mr Shapps said emergency measures were being put in place to cope with a backlog of lorries heading for the Channel ports.

But he sought to play down the potential impact, stressing that container freight was not hit by the ban on people crossing the border and hauliers were “quite used to anticipating disruption”.

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The disused Manston Airport in Kent would be used as a lorry park, while Operation Stack, the contingency measures used to queue on the M20 whenever there is disruption at the Channel, was already in place.

It meant hauliers from across Europe were faced with spending the night in their cabs.

The Transport Secretary dismissed concerns about the impact of the travel ban on supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is manufactured in Belgium, because container freight was unaffected.

Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister told the PA news agency that a prolonged period of disruption would be a “stark situation”.

“Because of the importance of the Dover Strait in handling critical goods such as food and other things like that I think it could become quite dramatic,” he warned.

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