A Bristol MP has said the government has had "no grasp" of the pandemic after the Prime Minister confirmed new Christmas and tier 4 coronavirus restrictions.
Boris Johnson held a Downing Street briefing earlier today (Saturday, December 19) to confirm changes to the previously-agreed Christmas relaxations of the restrictions, including that the five-day period identified for rules to be slackened would no longer be in effect.
Instead, the rules will only be relaxed to allow households to meet on Christmas Day.
A new tier of restrictions, comparable to the national lockdown that was in place throughout November, will also now come into effect for London and areas of the South East and eastern England.
This will mean nobody will be able to travel out of a tier 4 area from tomorrow (Sunday, December 20) and people from other areas will be advised not to travel to these areas.
This has put many people's Christmas plans in jeopardy, with many having made arrangements under the old rules.
Karin Smyth, the Labour MP for Bristol South, has responded to the government's announcement by declaring that they have had "no grasp" on the virus "since day one" and that the news was "extremely distressing".
She made the statement in response to a tweet from former Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt that said: "Nightmarish decision. But in a pandemic I would rather a government that changes tack quickly if that’s what it takes, so strongly support Boris Johnson."
Ms Smyth retweeted the tweet, saying in doing so: "It’s not a tack quickly. Always too slow, always overpromising ..... no grasp of this since day 1. Hugely distressing news for thousands of families.
