ENGLAND will enter a tougher three-tiered system of local coronavirus restrictions when the national lockdown ends on December 2, Downing Street has said.

Boris Johnson is expected to detail his plan for winter to MPs today as he sets out how people can see their loved ones at Christmas.

The “Covid winter plan” is expected to place more areas into the higher tiers to keep the virus under control to ensure further restrictions are not needed, No 10 said.

In other coronavirus related news:

  • Campaigners have launched legal proceedings against the Government claiming it handed out top jobs in the coronavirus pandemic to “cronies” without proper competition. The Good Law Project and race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust said they had filed for judicial review at the High Court claiming that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock had acted “unlawfully”. The case relates to the recruitment of Tory peer Baroness Dido Harding to both the head of NHS Test and Trace and the new National Institute of Health Protection; Kate Bingham as head of the UK’s vaccine taskforce; and Mike Coupe as director of NHS Test and Trace.
  • Boris Johnson is facing the threat of a backbench revolt to his plans to move England into a tougher three-tiered system after the lockdown ends. Dozens of Conservative MPs have said they will not back such a move without extensive evidence. The Prime Minister has been warned in a letter by the Covid recovery group (CRG), said to be signed by 70 Tory MPs, that he will have to provide a cost-benefit analysis to show the restrictions “will save more lives than they cost”.
  • Chancellor Rishi Sunak has warned that “Christmas is not going to be normal” despite England preparing to move out of lockdown and into a strengthened three-tier system of local coronavirus restrictions next month. Boris Johnson will detail his “winter Covid plan” today, setting out the restrictions to replace the national lockdown on December 2 and how people can spend the festive period. Downing Street said more areas are expected to enter higher tiers next month and those tiers will be strengthened to safeguard the gains made during the four-week lockdown, but it is understood that the 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants will be altered.
  • Boris Johnson will outline plans for a limited relaxation of coronavirus restrictions to allow some mixing between households across the UK for Christmas. The Prime Minister is to set out the basis of plans for the festive period today, as well as detailing a new tougher three-tier system for England when its national lockdown ends on December 2. But Mr Johnson will be unable to say how many households will be allowed to mix over Christmas and for how many days restrictions will be relaxed for until a later date.
  • A month after being forced to withdraw from the final round of the Italian Open after his caddie tested positive for Covid-19, Denmark’s Joachim B Hansen secured his first European Tour title in the Joburg Open. South Africa’s Wilco Nienaber took a one-shot lead into the final round at Randpark Golf Club and extended his advantage to three strokes with a hat-trick of birdies from the fourth. However, Hansen birdied the 10th, 12th and 14th to get back on level terms before Nienaber bogeyed the 17th after almost finding the water to the left of the green. Nienaber also dropped a shot on the 18th as Hansen saved par from a greenside bunker to seal a two-shot victory with a bogey-free final round of 67.
  • Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, met the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales and the First and Deputy Ministers of Northern Ireland to discuss shared arrangements for the festive period, the Cabinet Office said. “Welcoming the good progress made by all administrations over the past few days to design a single set of arrangements that can apply across the UK, ministers reiterated the importance of allowing families and friends to meet in a careful and limited way, while recognising that this will not be a normal festive period and the risks of transmission remain very real. As such, ministers endorsed a shared objective of facilitating some limited additional household bubbling for a small number of days, but also emphasised that the public will be advised to remain cautious, and that wherever possible people should avoid travelling and minimise social contact."
  • There were 1,011 additional coronavirus cases since Sunday across the North-East and North Yorkshire, according to Government statistics.
  • There were an additional 32 deaths in North East and North Yorkshire hospitals since Sunday.
  • The Government said of Sunday’s figures on deaths of people who tested positive for Covid: “Due to a processing update, 141 previously published deaths within 28 days in England were excluded from the published data on November 21. “This issue has now been corrected for data published on November 22, which includes deaths omitted yesterday in today’s total and daily number of newly reported deaths.”
  • The number of lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has passed 1.5 million after a further 18,662 cases were announced on Sunday by the Government. It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 1,512,045. The Government said a further 398 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Sunday, bringing the UK total to 55,024.