MPs are to vote on extending emergency Covid laws in England for another four weeks later today.
On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the final stage of easing lockdown restrictions in England would be delayed from 21 June to 19 July.
Mr Johnson said the four-week delay would give the NHS “a few more crucial weeks” to get people vaccinated, amid rising cases of the more transmissible Delta variant.
On Wednesday afternoon, MPs will get the chance to debate and then vote on extending coronavirus restrictions, with a number of Conservative MPs set to rebel against the government.
But the extension to restrictions is likely to be voted through – with Labour expected to back the measures.
Labour has accused ministers of letting the Delta variant in by not toughening rules on travel from India sooner.
Yesterday Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said extending coronavirus rules “is devastating but it was not inevitable” and blamed “lax Conservative border policy”.
