Rishi Sunak is cutting short a trip to the United States for crisis talks with business chiefs as the spread of Omicron and health warnings wreaked havoc on hard-hit pubs and restaurants.
The Chancellor has been criticised for going on the trip as the coronavirus variant's spread led to a wave of cancelled bookings and falling takings across the hospitality sector.
It came as the Premier League postponed four more matches scheduled for this weekend after outbreaks at Brentford, Watford, Norwich City and Leicester City.
Omicron is surging across the country and now accounts for nearly three-quarters of new cases of Covid in London, according to analysis.
Some 73 per cent of a sample of new coronavirus cases in the capital with specimen dates for December 13 and 14 were found to have S gene target failure (SGTF) - a way of detecting the likely presence of Omicron.
