14 Saturday December 18 2021 | the times
News
Meeting other people indoors would be
banned for two weeks after Christmas
under plans being drawn up for a
“circuit breaker” to slow Omicron.
Ministers are due imminently to
present proposals under which
England would return to restrictions
last seen in April after models suggest-
ed this could halve a peak of hospital
admissions that might otherwise break
the NHS. However, Boris Johnson has
not yet approved the plans and insisted
yesterday he was not “closing things
down”.
Further measures before Christmas
have not been ruled out but Johnson is
reluctant to toughen restrictions after
the rebellion against plan B this week
by 100 of his MPs and the North Shrop-
shire by-election defeat.
Sources played down the chance of
announcements in the coming days,
with key scientific advisers waiting for
firmer data on the risks of Omicron.
Johnson also wants to assess the im-
pact of measures imposed over the past
week and is understood to believe that
with towns and cities emptying as
people become more cautious, there
may be no need to tighten rules further.
But government scientists are be-
coming increasingly gloomy about the
outlook without fresh restrictions as
93,045 cases were reported yesterday,
the third record day in a row.
Scotland and Wales are re-imposing
some social distancing and Johnson
spoke to Nicola Sturgeon Mark Drake-
ford, the respective first ministers, to
acknowledge “economic disruption” as
people stay at home to avoid infection.
He will hold a Cobra meeting with
the devolved administrations this
weekend to try to finalise support for
the hospitality industry across the UK.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, returned
from California yesterday to work on
the package, with extra help expected
to be announced in the coming days.
Rebellious Tory MPs with safe seats
may be sitting a little less comfortably
this week after voting against the gov-
ernment’s new Covid-19 restrictions.
On Tuesday night almost half of
Conservative backbenchers voted
against new curbs requiring people to
show proof of vaccination or a negative
test at large indoor venues in England.
Three safe seats visited by The Times
this week found them to be as split as
the party they support.
Peter Johnson, 28, who works for a
farming contractor in Yeovil, Somerset,
said the “curtailing of our civil liberties”
was not necessary. After having his
booster jab he said: “In any other time
[Boris Johnson] would’ve been a good
leader, but these are exceptional
circumstances and I’m beginning to
realise he isn’t an exceptional leader.”
Marcus Fysh, the MP for Yeovil, had
Feeling blue: dyed-in-the-wool Tories are as divided as their party
said he was against Covid-19 passports
because “this is not Nazi Germany.”
Rosemary Brooks, 30, a marketing
assistant in the constituency who has
only ever voted Tory, said of the prime
minister: “He can’t control his party
and he can’t control the country and
the sooner he’s replaced the better.”
Nine miles away in Crewkerne, Brian
Fleming, 42, a garage owner, called for
a new leader and said the country needs
to “try to put this pandemic behind us”.
He added: “We can’t keep going one
step forward and two steps back. [Boris]
appears to lurch from one disaster to
another — mainly of his own making
— and at each disaster he loses more
and more support.”
The mood was different six miles
away in Chard where there was very
little love lost for Fysh.
Elizabeth Ham, 71, a retired science
teacher, said: “Whatever you think, the
government has to take what the scien-
tists say seriously. So it was wrong forJames Wilkins, 51, an IT consultant in
Fordingbridge, said the latest Covid-
restrictions “are set to protect everyone
and to get out of the situation”.
“I don’t think [Swayne] should have
objected,” he said. “I appreciate some
are fed up but it must be pointed out
that we are not out of the woods yet. By
not having the restrictions, you’re just
prolonging agony.”
Edward Fenner-Riley, 67, an energy
consultant, backed Swayne. “I’m with
him 100 per cent on not wearing a
mask,” he said. “I wear a mask when I go
into shops out of respect for others, not
because I think they work. The NHS is
no longer at threat.”
In High Wycombe, Buckingham-
shire, constituents were praising their
rebellious MP Steve Baker. Fraser
White, 52, a Tory voter, said: “I don’t
think the government has presented
MPs with the evidence to back up what
they are doing. I am an accountant and
I have clients that are suffering.”Will Humphries
Southwest Correspondent
Two-week circuit
breaker would ban
meetings indoors
Patrick Maguire Red Box Editor
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor
Officials are now going further, how-
ever, and preparing draft regulations
that would re-impose “Step 2” of the
spring road map out of last winter’s
lockdown. This would see indoor mix-
ing banned except for work purposes
and pubs and restaurants limited to
table service outdoors.
Schools and shops would remain
open and there would be no formal
“stay at home” order but friends and
families would only be able to see each
other in groups of six outdoors. Shield-
ing for the most vulnerable would
return and weddings and funerals
would be limited to 15 to 30 people.
Senior health figures have been per-
suaded of the need for action after
modelling estimated that on current
trends daily hospital admissions would
peak in January at 3,000 to 10,000. Cur-
rently they are about 900 a day. Admis-
sions peaked at 4,000 a day in England
last year, pushing hospitals to the brink.
However, the SPi-M modellers esti-
mated that a short period of measures
similar to Step 2 could mean a peak of
between 1,500 and 5,000 a day.
Ministers have yet to formally con-
sider the plans. But some sources said
planning was under way to recall par-
liament next week to debate the restric-
tions, suggesting they could be imple-
mented from December 27 or 28.
Scientists warn that waiting too long
risks having to move to tougher restric-
tions. Professor Neil Ferguson of Impe-
rial College London said that data on
severity would be available next week,
insisting: “Time is of the essence. I think
if we are going to make additional deci-
sions [.. .] they probably will need to be
made in the next week or two to have a
substantial impact.”
Johnson insisted yesterday that the
government was focusing on booster
jabs “to avert some of the more damag-
ing consequences of Omicron”. He said
that people should be “prudent” and
consider their “budget of risk” when
meeting others, as “there is a big wave of
Omicron coming through”.Analysis
A
ct now or wait and
hope you will not need
to? That is the
dilemma within
government as a wave
of Omicron breaks across the
country this Christmas (Chris
Smyth writes).
At the moment a debate is
playing out among officials and
scientists in Whitehall, with
ministers preoccupied by
political turmoil. But soon the
government has to choose.
Some of the government’s
scientific advisers believe it
makes clear sense to act now, to
impose measures that are
“stringent” but fall short of a
lockdown in order to ensure
hospitals are not overwhelmed in
the new year.
Others feel they cannot
unequivocally advise ministers to
act. Chris Whitty, the chief
medical officer for England,
pointed out that until we know
how well vaccination protects
against hospitalisation from
Omicron, it is hard to know what
to do. The first data on this, and
the true severity of the variant, is
only expected after Christmas.
Boris Johnson appears to be
heading for the second approach.
Officials planning for a “circuit
breaker” set of restrictions are
trying to suggest a middle ground
which allows the government to
wait and then divide the
epidemic into two more
manageable waves. But Johnson
has rejected such proposals
before.
The risk is that the data is bad
and, having left it late, Johnson
has few options other than a full
and protracted lockdown.News Coronavirus
A woman waits
for her booster jab
from army medics in
Southsea, Hampshireour MP to go against that
advice and think that
he knows better than
they do.”
In Fordingbridge,
on the edge of the
New Forest, there
were strong opinions
about Sir Desmond
Swayne, the local MP
who voted against the
government on vaccine
passports as well as on its
other laws requiring
NHS and social care staff
to be vaccinated and for
masks to be worn indoors.Jackie Guild was furious. “He hasn’t
got the right to object on my behalf, he
should be voting with the party,” she
said. “I do not want to vote for him
again. These politicians are just rebel-
ling on their own, they should be
supporting Boris. They’re not the
opposition.”
In 2019 Swayne won almost
64 per cent of the vote in New
Forest West, but many said
they would think again
after he wrongly said that
“carnage” on the roads
was killing more people
than Covid-19.
Sarah Perrelle, 71, a
former radiographer, de-
scribed herself as “absolutely
blue through and through”
but said she thinks his com-
ments were “appalling”.
“At the moment I would vote
for Sir Keir Starmer because I
respect him,” she said.Edward Fenner-
Riley, below, backs
the rebellious
Sir Desmond
Swayne