With Plan B measures due to be reviewed soon, reports are suggesting that all Covid-19 restrictions could be scrapped - apart from two.
Senior government sources have revealed that the current restrictions in place may be ditched after 26 January. They include: mandatory mask wearing (in schools, on public transport and at indoor events), covid passports and the 'work from home' rule.
As per the Sunday Express, all that will remain will be a requirement to isolate for five days with a positive covid test and the need to take lateral flow tests for international travel.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer weighed in on the possibility of the restrictions being lifted and said he hopes it will be done 'as soon as possible'.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, Starmer said: “I think the sooner we can lift the final restrictions, the better. I think that’s what the whole country want.
“I think it’s important that we’re led by the science on this. We had access to the Government scientific and medical advisers, and that’s helped us form our views.
“I hope those restrictions can be lifted as soon as possible, but I want them to be lifted because the medical science says they should be lifted, not simply because the Prime Minister is in a real mess and he’s desperately trying to get out of it.
“So, if it’s the right thing to lift those restrictions, we will vote to lift those restrictions. But we’ll be led by the science as we always have been, not by the politics of propping up a broken Prime Minister.”
Oliver Dowden, the Conservative Party chairman, said the 'signs are encouraging' for lifting Plan B restrictions at the end of the month.
He told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme: “It has always been my hope that we would have the Plan B restrictions for the shortest period possible.
“I’m under no doubt the kind of burdens this puts hospitality, wider business, schools and so on under, and I want us to get rid of those if we possibly can.
“The signs are encouraging but, clearly, we will wait to see the data ahead of that final decision.”
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: News, UK News, Coronavirus
Rebecca Shepherd