Cancelling Christmas is "very much not the plan", Boris Johnson has said, amid concerns of a spike in coronavirus cases during the festive season.
The prime minister said the government does not "expect to have to do anything like last Christmas" when spiralling infection rates forced him to implement restrictions on mixing.
The emergence of the Alpha variant in the run-up to Christmas 2020, alongside previous failings in controlling the spread of Covid-19, intensified the size and scope of the UK’s winter wave, leading to tens of thousands of more deaths across the four nations.
