OFFICE romantics shouldn’t be “snogging under the mistletoe” at Christmas parties this year, a Covid-cautious Cabinet Minister has decreed.
Smooch Scrooge Therese Coffey last night mired the rules in further confusion by telling Brits not to KISS.
Government advice around bashes has already been muddied after top doc Jenny Harries said mixing should be discouraged and Sajid Javid said take a test.
Boris Johnson scrambled to defuse the chaos by declaring festive parties should go ahead and revellers shouldn’t be pulling the plug.
But Work and Pensions Secretary Ms Coffey told ITV’s Peston: “I don’t think there should be much snogging under the mistletoe! Don’t need to do things like that.”
It has echoes of the notorious sex ban imposed on dallying Brits during the first lockdown.
A poll earlier this week found Omicron won’t deter two in three people from snogging at Christmas bashes.
Ms Coffey later clarified that people shouldn’t kiss with those “you don’t already know”.
And she did say that “Christmas we should continue to plan for and enjoy, I hope.”
However another minister this morning sowed more confusion by announcing he would be having his gettogether on Zoom.
Gloomy business minister George Freeman said: “I think Therese Coffey was making the point that we’re all going to have to exercise some common sense and I think the British public know that, in the end, it is up to all of us.
“If we can prevent the virus from spreading, we’ll all be able to enjoy more freedoms and that’s why we have taken the steps we have.
“I can tell you that my parliamentary team and I normally have a Christmas party.
“We’ve decided this year that it is probably sensible to do it by Zoom and wait for the spring. It won’t be the best party in the world.
“But… we don’t want to be telling every individual business what they should or shouldn’t be doing. It is a matter for them.”
