New lockdown measures are a balance between ‘protecting lives and livelihoods’ says government minister
Cabinet minister Steve Barclay, told BBC Breakfast this morning, “there is a balance to be struck between protecting lives and livelihoods”, after Boris Johnson refused from confirm any new measures yesterday evening, but said “we will rule nothing out”.
Barclay told the BBC that the government is looking at the data closely, but the time lag of hospitalisation means that it is difficult to make any further lockdown decisions until more information is available.
The Prime Minister said data was being reviewed “hour by hour”, and that the government reserved the possibility of taking further action to stop the spread of the new Omicron variant if it was needed.
It comes as the Opposition, as well as members of his own party, call on the Prime Minister to provide clearer guidance in the run up to Christmas.
Labour leader Keir Starmer called the government’s lack of clarity “shameful”.
Meanwhile, Dehenna Sheridan Davison, Conservative MP, tweeted: “We really need some certainty”.
Barclay did recognise that the Plan B measures were already having a significant impact on people’s behaviour, which in turn had a knock-on impact on businesses across the country in the normally busy run up to Christmas.
He added that the Chancellor had met business leaders who are calling for more financial support and told the BBC the government would “say more about this later today”.
However, he said the government need to make “finely balanced decisions”, acknowledging the economic and wider mental health costs of any lockdown.
Once again, Barclay couldn’t rule out further measures , but said “we are not at that stage” in terms of data as it stands this morning, and encouraged the public to have a “cautious” Christmas.