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Priti Patel has claimed that the government has been “consistently ahead of the curve” in its response to coronavirus.
The home secretary’s comment came days after the hurried cancellation of Christmas mixing rules and introduction of “stay at home” orders in the southeast, and during frantic negotiations with France to try to reopen Channel ports.
Ms Patel acknowledged that the stringent tier 4 rules may have to be extended to other parts of the country as a new variant of Covid-19 spreads.
And she was unable to guarantee that schools will reopen as planned following the Christmas break.
Meanwhile, a member of the prime minister’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) confirmed that the mutant coronavirus was likely to mean tighter controls in all parts of the country after Christmas.
Prof John Edmunds told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It does look like the virus is probably across the country already and so I do think that we might unfortunately have to impose tougher restrictions across the country.”
Ms Patel denied that the government was acting in a “last-minute” way.
“The government has consistently, throughout this year, been ahead of the curve in terms of proactive measures,” the Home Secretary told Today.
“There’s nothing last-minute in terms of the work that was undertaken by government in terms of planning and preparing for tier 4.
“These are big decisions that are taken collectively across government based on scientific advisors – Patrick Vallance, Chris Whitty, many, many other individuals as well from the scientific and medical community.”
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