From December 23 to December 27, coronavirus restrictions and rules will be relaxed in order to allow people to spend the festive season with their families. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said the Government had been clear people needed to remain “cautious and vigilant”.
Despite warnings from medical experts, the UK Government said it intends to allow people to meet and the measures are “under constant review”.
But, Piers Morgan has lashed out at the confusing advice from the Government and said they will “blame the public” when cases surge in January.
He tweeted: “In other words ‘we want to make it vague enough so we can blame the public when cases surge after Christmas’.
“This Govt takes us for mugs.”
This comes after an Ipsos poll found nearly half of Britons did not think the coronavirus rules over Christmas were strict enough.
Out of 1,027 adults interview, 49 percent said they were not strict enough while just 39 percent said they were “about right”.
Just 10 percent said the restrictions over the festive period were “too strict”.
Michael Gove, Cabinet Office minister, is expected to discuss festive rules with the other leaders of the devolved nations later.
READ MORE: Will Government change Christmas rules? Tory MPs express concerns
“And yet we know, if people do not use the modest amount of additional freedom available responsibly, then we will see an impact of that on our already hard-pressed health service.
“So I think the choice is an incredibly difficult one.
“At the moment we have a four-nation agreement.
“I will discuss that later today, we will look at the figures again together.”
Today, two leading medical journals warned the easing of coronavirus rules over Christmas is a “rash decision” which will cost “many lives”.
The Health Service Journal and the British Medical Journal said people may see the easing of restrictions as “permission to drop their guard”.
The Labour Party have called for the rules to be reviewed amid rising cases of the virus.
Opposition leader, Sir Keir Starmer said: “I understand that people want to spend time with their families after this awful year, but the situation has clearly taken a turn for the worse since the decision about Christmas was taken.
“It serves no one for politicians to ignore this fact.
“It is my view that you should now convene Cobra in the next 24 hours to review whether the current relaxation is appropriate given the rising number of cases.”
