BORIS Johnson is set for a showdown with Tory lockdown-sceptics today as fears grow that the new laws will last until the END of March.
MPs will be recalled to the House of Commons today for crucial votes on the new laws – which came into place last night.
The vote – which is set to take place this evening – will comfortably pass, and Labour will back them too.
However, the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), which was formed to resist lockdown measures, is set to back the Government too.
One member told The Times: “There’s no choice this time.”
Boris will start the day with a coronavirus update to the House of Commons at around 11.30am, where he will explain why he chose to plunge England into a fresh lockdown – thanks to the soaring case numbers across the country.
He’s promised that his vaccines strategy will deliver a way out of the lockdown, with a target of 13million of the most vulnerable Brits jabbed by the middle of February.
Only after then will he consider lifting measures.
But eagle-eyed MPs spotted in the legislation, released last night, that the new lockdown laws could last until March 31.
There’s been no set end date for the lockdown, with ministers refusing to be drawn on exactly when rules can be lifted.
But they hope to get kids back to school after the February half-term break.
Yesterday Michael Gove said it could go on into March if the vaccine rollout is slowed.
It came as:
- Teachers could be bumped up the priority list for the vaccine to help kids get back to school in the coming months, MPs suggested
- Ministers this morning insisted pharmacies would be used for the jab rollout – just hours after they complained of being snubbed
- And Matt Hancock and Public Health England faced a backlash as the jab won’t be delivered to hospitals and GPs on Sundays
Covid vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi said the vaccine programme was a ‘Herculean’ effort.
He said the target to get almost 14 million people vaccinated by next month is a “stretching target” but he was confident it would be delivered.
And there will be a “massive acceleration” in numbers vaccinated in the coming days, he promised.
Meanwhile, Dr Susan Hopkins, deputy director of the national infections service at Public Health England (PHE), said coronavirus cases were still rising.
“This position is the most serious we’ve been in so far this pandemic,” she told BBC Breakfast.
Covid cases are continuing to rise across the nation – with 60,000 cases reported yesterday alone.
1.1.million people in the UK now have Covid – with 1.3million vaccinated.
Daily numbers for those who have had the jab will be revealed next week, Boris Johnson vowed last night.
SCHOOL’S OUT
Later today Gavin Williamson will give an update to MPs on school closures – and is expected to tell them kids will be graded on teacher predictions instead.
Schools are to be shut until at least half term, and perhaps even longer.
But the kids of key workers and vulnerable children can still go in.
Earlie today Education Select Committee chairman Robert Halfon described the situation with schools as “a mess”.
The Conservative MP told Sky News: “Clearly it has been a mess but we are where we are.
“But I think now we have to move on and make sure we have an exam system that is a level playing field for students and fair to the disadvantaged.”
He also demanded teachers be given the jab next, after vulnerable people have had it.
