Ministers are publicly agonising over whether to scrap the Christmas easing of social distancing rules as they hold talks to reconsider the plan this afternoon.
Pressure is growing for a rethink on a five-day relaxation of coronavirus rules after health service leaders warned it would “cost many lives”.
Sir Keir Starmer this afternoon urged Boris Johnson to review the plan, saying “the situation has clearly taken a turn for the worse since the decision about Christmas was taken”.
Cases and hospital admissions are rising with warnings that the NHS will exceed its spring peak of Covid patients by the end of the month. Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, said ministers should listen “very carefully” to calls for a rethink.
“To go into the start
