While furious Tories push back against Boris’s shift to Plan B, senior Labour figures want restrictions to go even further. This morning, Angela Rayner said “The government are not going far enough as far as I’m concerned”. What exact restrictions to Labour want therefore?

Perhaps Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Mark Drakeford has let slip the party’s true desires: Guido learns that last night he privately demanded a complete lockdown between Christmas and New Year during a phone call between Michael Gove, First Ministers and the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish Secretaries of State. All while deaths and hospitalisations in Wales remain relatively stable…

Reacting to the absurd demand, a government source privy to the call accused the First Minister of making “Ebenezer Scrooge look like Santa Claus”:

“On just a limited amount of data, the knee jerk reaction from Welsh Government is to cancel everything and lock everyone away. How long can that approach continue?

More businesses will go bust and more jobs will be lost, but it’s no surprise that Welsh Labour don’t care about that given their economic track record.”

Drakeford has already said publicly that Wales is at “a perilous moment” with Omicron. It looks like this might be his next step.

UPDATE: Drakeford’s press office responds:

“While there is increasing concern about the omicron variant, we do not anticipate making significant changes to the existing regulations at the moment.”

Co-conspirators will note the phrase “at the moment”, and the lack of any attempt at a denial…