A letter signed by the LibDem leadership implores all four UK leaders in No. 10, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to “accept the inevitability” that families will travel, meet up and mix at Christmas despite lockdown rules, and to come up with new uniform guidance to ensure family gatherings can happen safely. Guido reckons the LibDems discovering an ounce of liberalism might be the only Christmas miracle we see this year… 

The remarkably sensible call from Sir Ed Davey and his UK counterparts comes as Government modelling leaks suggesting all of England will need to be under Tier 3 restrictions by mid December as projections show more than 25,000 set to be in hospital by the end of November. Higher than the spring peak.

Labour’s health Grinch Jon Ashworth accuses the government of putting Christmas “at risk” after missing the “window of opportunity over the half term” for a circuit breaker lockdown, saying it’s in the hands of the public and the government when it comes to whether more than 6 family members will be able to meet for Christmas. If the government thinks anyone is going to follow the letter of the rules over Christmas, it’s got another think coming…