London goes into Tier 3: Matt Hancock confirms city will go into toughest lockdown from Wednesday

Millions of Londoners are to be plunged into a Tier 3 shutdown just days before Christmas as coronavirus cases in the capital soar ‘off the chart’.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the city’s MPs today that the tough new rules will come into effect just after midnight on Wednesday morning – less than 48 hours time.

The move, opposed by many MPs and firms, could devastate businesses just days before Christmas, with pubs, restaurants and culture venues closed, while shoppers from Tier 2 zones would be barred from shopping in its major retail hubs like Oxford Street. 

West End theatres are also readying themselves to close after tomorrow night’s performances. 

MPs were warned this morning that there was ‘exponential growth’ in cases in London’s boroughs and some of the major commuter areas like Hertfordshire and Essex, which will also go into Tier 3.

Meanwhile Kent, already in Tier 3, could face a further tightening of restrictions with a surge in cases that has yet to fall.

After the meeting, Ealing Central Labour MP Rupa Huq tweeted: ‘Worst kept secret ever confirmed London and Essex (except Tendring) and Herts (Watford/ Hertsmere/ Broxbourne) from 1 min past midnight Weds.

‘London and bits of Essex and Hertfordshire to enter ”standard tier 3” from Wednesday confirmed by Matt Hancock on call for MPs from London and South East Next review on 23rd Dec – to be weekly.’

Mr  Hancock will update MPs on the latest developments in the fight against Covid-19 at 3.30pm today. His statement is understood to focus on further measures for London to tackle the spread of coronavirus. He will then lead a Government press conference this evening. 

The Government agreed to review the tier levels every two weeks at the latest after they were introduced on December 2, in order to pass the legislation needed in the face of a backbench rebellion.  

But London mayor Sadiq Khan earlier said it was ‘possible’ a decision could be brought forward from Wednesday to today because of the spike in numbers, with a key cabinet committee meeting taking place this morning.

Introducing the restrictions sooner would give them more time to take effect before the nationwide loosening of restrictions takes place from December 23 – 27, with up to three families allowed to meet without social distancing. 

Mr Khan warned Tier 3 would be ‘catastrophic’ without extra help for the city’s businesses, coming in what should be a ‘golden quarter’ of the year before Christmas.

He told Sky News is was ‘possible’ a decision on a tier change could be made today, adding: ‘If the government decides to do that they must provide additional support over and above what has been offered to make sure these businesses go bust,’ he told Sky News.

‘If they go bust not only will it lead to hundreds of thousands of Londoners being made unemployed, but our ability to recover from this pandemic will be made much harder. It is in nobody’s interest for these businesses to go bust, December is a crucial month for many of these business.’ 

It comes as:

• Millions of London parents faced an anxious wait to see if schools are shut early after Labour’s Greenwich Council asked headteachers to shut their gates at the end of today. 
• Islington Council has today advised schools to move to online learning from the end of Tuesday because of a rise in coronavirus cases across the capital. 
• Tens of thousands of residents in low-infection towns and villages had their hopes of ‘decoupling’ from the tiers of surrounding coronavirus hotspots dashed. 
• GP surgeries in England will begin offering coronavirus vaccinations from today, with practices in more than 100 locations having the approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine delivered. 

The mayor told Sky News: ‘My understanding is that Covid-O is meeting as we speak – that’s the sub-committee of the Cabinet that makes the recommendations.

‘We will have to wait and see what the Government decides – it’s a Government decision, not my decision or London leaders’ decision.’

He said ‘it’s possible’ that a decision will be made today ‘because we have seen over the last few days a big increase in the virus’.

But he added: ‘It’s worth looking where the virus is spreading faster and it’s worth looking at the areas where we have seen the biggest increase.

‘It’s worth them asking themself the question whether a move to Tier 3 is a blunt instrument that doesn’t really address in a laser-like fashion where we are seeing the biggest problems.’

Downing Street said this afternoon there are no plans to shorten the period over Christmas in which social distancing will be relaxed nationwide amid concerns over increasing coronavirus rates.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘No. We’ve set out the details of the Christmas guidelines.

‘There are no plans to review the Christmas guidance. What we’ve said alongside that is that the public should continue to be cautious.

‘I think the Prime Minister said it’s the season to be jolly careful and we would emphasise that we should continue to do that.

‘We’ve been clear that it’s a limited easement to allow families to bubble over the Christmas period after what has been a very difficult year for many people.

‘But it remains important for the public to follow the guidance.’

It came as millions of London parents faced an anxious wait to see if schools are shut early after a Labour council backed by Sadiq Khan asked headteachers to shut their gates at the end of today because of rising coronavirus cases in the capital.

Greenwich Council leader Danny Thorpe has been accused of ‘an appalling lack of leadership’ after announcing his decision on Twitter last night amid fears London’s 20 other Labour councils could follow suit.

But Cllr Thorpe, a former teacher supported by Britain’s teaching unions, did not specify on what scientific basis officials had reached the decision, leading to accusations he was putting scoring political points above the education of children.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wants all London secondary schools and colleges to shut before the end of term on Friday – in defiance of the government’s instruction to keep them open – blaming rising Covid-19 cases.  But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer came out against Mr Khan this morning and told LBC: ‘I am very reluctant to close our schools’. 

London Tory MPs in the briefing with health minister Helen Whately this morning urged the PM to avoid a blanket Tier 3 move for the city.  

Harrow East Tory Bob Blackman said that the only people who would benefit from the move would be Amazon and other online retailers, with shoppers from Tier 2 areas effectively barred from entering the capital. 

He and other Tory MPs wrote to Boris Johnson at the weekend urging him not to inflict ‘untold damage’ on the capital by moving it into Tier 3. 

They warned many London Tory MPs could vote against the Government’s Covid approach when it is reviewed next month if the city is plunged into tier 3. 

Mr Blackman told MailOnline today that the briefing today involved ‘lots of questions and not many answers’.

‘They are in the position I think of softening everyone up to say ”not only are you going to go into tier 3 but we are going to have to strengthen tier 3 and possibly have a tier 4 doing something else”, which none of us know yet,’ he said.

He suggested that closing secondary schools – one of the main sources of growth in cases – may help to act as a fire-break before restrictions are lifted for five days across Christmas. 

Labour’s Bermondsey MP Neil Coyle added: ‘Very grim figures. So angry at repeat failures to properly test and trace, a year after WHO sounded the pandemic alarm. People, especially children, and businesses have been let down so badly.’

Another MP in the capital said there was a ‘lot of frustration’ with no real answers to their questions.

 It was the ‘same gloomy outlook as last week’s meeting except all the data is even worse, almost back to the levels pre-lockdown’.

The MP suggested that the message over Christmas would be ‘do not mix if you don’t need to’.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, which was jointly signed by London Councils chairwoman Georgia Gould, Mr Khan said the seven-day case rate had risen in 32 local authority areas in the capital compared to the previous week.

There were also 17 boroughs where the seven-day rate exceeded 200 cases per 100,000 people.

According to the latest figures, the borough of Havering has the highest coronavirus rate in London, with 1,314 new cases recorded in the seven days to December 9 – the equivalent of 506.3 cases per 100,000 people.

This is up from a rate of 321.3 in the seven days to December 2.

The figures have been calculated by the PA news agency, based on Public Health England data published on December 13 on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard. 

How England’s North-South divide REVERSED: Tier Three and lockdown forced coronavirus cases down in the North West but infection rates have rocketed in new hotspots in London and the South East

England’s North-South divide of coronavirus cases has reversed in the past month, with outbreaks in the North brought under control by Tier Three rules and lockdown while cases spiralled out of control in the South.

London is expected to go into Tier Three today amid surging infections a week before Christmas, while a fortnightly review could see the already-tough rules in the North relaxed later this week.  

Official figures reveal that there are now only two parts of the North of England that rank among the country’s worst-affected areas, after the list was almost entirely populated by the North and Midlands just weeks ago.   

Data shows that the local lockdown rules do appear to work – and Government decisions to go easy on the South has led to a devastating spike in infections just a week before Christmas. 

On October 14 only four days before the old tiers came into force, 29 of England’s 50 most infected councils were in the North West, and 16 in the North East and Yorkshire.

But two months later the tables had turned with the latest data from Public Health England for the seven days to December 9 revealing London has the highest number of councils in the list, at 14, followed by the South East and East of England with 13 councils each.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock will speak in the House of Commons at 3.30pm this afternoon before a TV briefing later, when he is expected to announce that the capital must go into shutdown this week.

The city is beginning to close itself, piece by piece, with schools now planning to shut early for Christmas and mayor Sadiq Khan saying pupils should stay home until mid-January in a bid to stop the virus in its tracks.

MPs were warned this morning that there was ‘exponential growth’ in cases in London’s boroughs and some of the major commuter areas like Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Meanwhile Kent, already in Tier 3, could face a further tightening of restrictions with a surge in cases that has yet to fall.

Burnley and South Tyneside are the only northern councils still among the worst affected areas. Former hotspots Liverpool, Blackburn with Darwen and Bolton have dropped out of the most infected areas.

Hospitalisations with Covid-19 also reveals the second wave has shifted decidedly south, with admissions rising in the East of England, London, the Midlands and South East comparing December 6 to last week. Although they were declining in the North, the most recent data from the NHS shows they are rising again.

The upending of England’s outbreak comes after the capital was declared the nation’s outbreak hotspot last week with the highest number of infections per 100,000 residents.

Greenwich, in the south east of the city, became the first council to switch its schools to online learning only in the final week of term yesterday, with others expected to follow suit after the Health Secretary’s announcement today.

Official data reveals that London’s outbreak over lockdown – when cases actually rose – has been largely driven by infections in schools which were not bolted shut like in March 2020.

There are fears of a ‘third wave’ of infections after Christmas, when up to three households are allowed to mix between December 23 and 27. 

Boris Johnson warned last night that grandparents should think hard about whether to visit their families over Christmas, especially as their vaccination against Covid-19 could be barely months away. 

The latest infections data from a week after the second lockdown ended shows Kent, Essex and London were seeing the highest numbers of infections.

Swale, in Kent, was the Covid-19 hotspot after recording 633.7 cases per 100,000. It was followed by Medway, also in Kent, at 613.9, and Basildon, in Essex, at 613.8.

Havering was the capital’s most infected borough at 506.3 per 100,000, although many other boroughs also registered high on the infection charts.

Of the two councils in the North of England Burnley was 33rd in the list, after recording 287.9 per 100,000, and South Tyneside was 38th, after testers identified 272.2 per 100,000.

It is a stark switch from when the old tier system was introduced, when Nottingham in the Midlands had the highest infection rate per 100,000 residents at 880.4. 

It was followed by the Liverpool borough of Knowsley, in the North West, at 667.5 per 100,000, and Liverpool city centre, at 635.3 per 100,000.

There were no southern councils in the top 50 most infected councils list. 

The highest infection rate in London was in Ealing, which was 83 out of 315 local areas in the country at 127.3 per 100,000. And in the South – including the South East, South West and East of England – it was recorded in Bristol at 120 per 100,000.

Millions in the North have been forced to endure tough restrictions for months to drive down the number of coronavirus cases.

Large swathes were forced into Tier Three under the old system – forcing restaurants and pubs to ask customers to have a ‘substantial meal’ with any drinks they are ordering.

England was then shoved into a four-week lockdown from November 5, with shops, restaurants and pubs forced to pull down the shutters, after Boris Johnson hit the panic button.

And when the draconian restrictions were lifted most of the North of England was placed into a tightened Tier Three – which saw restaurants and pubs still forced to still only offer takeaway only.

Public Health England data has revealed infections were already falling in the region before lockdown, and have continued to fall under the suped up Tier Three measures imposed afterwards.