The move to hike London up into Tier 3 – a state of semi-lockdown – has seemingly been signed off this morning with a meeting in Whitehall and after a phone call to London MPs. The question now becomes when will the move happen; while the review of England’s tiers was scheduled for the 16th, it was thought any changes wouldn’t be implemented until a couple of days later. It now seems London’s Corona spread rate is so out of control the announcement could come as early as today or tomorrow…

This has led ITV’s Robert Peston to ask whether even the current Tier system – which is on steroids compared to the pre-second lockdown restrictions – are sufficient. Interestingly, Guido spoke to one northern leader at the weekend who, while lobbying PHE for their area to move down to Tier 2, came away exasperated that while the area meets the government’s tests (in terms of the R-rate and hospitalisations) the government’s public health quango “seem to be arguing Tier 2 might not be as effective as tier 3 so it shouldn’t happen… So while on the government’s own tests we should be in Tier 2 come end of next week I’m not holding my breath.” Could the government, therefore, be reviewing the tiers’ restrictions as well as where they apply in the coming days?