UK Covid live: minister casts doubt on wisdom of holding big Christmas parties

In his interview on Sky News this morning George Freeman, the science minister, implied that people in their 20s could contact their GPs about getting a booster jab. Kay Burley, the presenter, told him he was wrong. The NHS has said younger people should wait to be called for their booster, so that the older, more vulnerable people can be jabbed first.

In his interview with Sky News this morning George Freeman, the science minister, said that Boris Johnon was not a clown, and that it was “unhelpful” of President Macron to call him one. He suggested the jibe was linked to electioneering.

Asked about Macron’s comments, Freeman said:

I think we are into pantomime season, aren’t we? And there is a French election coming.

It is a pretty unhelpful word. Of course, the prime minister isn’t a clown, he is the elected prime minister of this country with a very big mandate, leading this country through the pandemic.

The truth is we are looking to work very closely with France on the border issue, on tackling the problem of European migration at source – which is why we are investing in trying to stabilise countries so people aren’t coming here – and, with France, we need to make sure that people in France aren’t being supplied with boats and being pushed out into the Channel.

I’m confident, actually, that Anglo-French relations are rather better than that quote suggests.

Firms are already starting to cancel Christmas parties, a leading business figure told the Today programme. Sir Martin Sorrell, who runs the S4Capital advertising agency, told the programme:

It’s not so much what we’re doing as what we see our clients doing and other people.

The answer is they are doing that, they are cancelling, [there has] been quite a sharp series of cancellations since this happened just, what, three, four, five days ago.

So, the uncertainty is extreme and government policy – understandably, I mean to be a little bit sympathetic to the government – it is an extremely difficult situation.

Sorrell also said that he thought the government was not giving enough guidance as to what people should or should not be doing.

Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, has said that people may need annual Covid vaccines. In an interview with the BBC, in which he said Pfizer was already working on a vaccine against the Omicron variant, he said:

Based on everything I have seen so far, I would say that annual vaccinations … are likely to be needed to maintain a very robust and very high level of protection.

In the US the Food and Drug Administration has approved the Pfizer vaccine for use with children aged five to 11 and Bourla said he favoured this happening in the Europe. He explained:

Covid in schools is thriving. This is disturbing, significantly, the educational system, and there are kids that will have severe symptoms. So there is no doubt in my mind that the benefits, completely, are in favour of doing it.

The tenth case of the Omicron variant identified in Scotland has no direct link to the previous nine cases which were connected to one event, PA Media reports. PA says:

Authorities have said the nine cases across Lanarkshire area and Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) identified earlier in the week were connected to an event on 20 November.

Public Health Scotland recorded an additional confirmed case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 on Wednesday in the NHSGGC area.

A Scottish government spokesman said: “The individual affected is in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area and while there is no direct link with the event on the 20 November which connected the previous nine cases, investigations are ongoing.

“As First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told parliament on Tuesday, it was already suspected that some degree of community transmission of this variant was taking place in Scotland. However, there is no indication as yet that transmission of the new variant is either sustained or widespread.”

The UK drugs watchdog has approved a new Covid treatment after trials found it cut the likelihood of hospital admission and death by 79% in high-risk adults, my colleague Andrew Gregory reports.

Here are some more lines from the George Freeman interviews this morning on Covid.

• Freeman, the science minister, said that he did not know if a Christmas party was held in Downing Street – but that all the guidance was followed. Asked by Justin Webb on the Today programme if there was a party, Freeman replied: “I’ve no idea. I wasn’t there.” But he went on: “But I’m told by those who were that all the guidance was observed.” When it was put to him that, if the guidance was followed, then there can’t have been a party, be because they weren’t allowed, he replied: “I can’t say, I wasn’t there.” When Webb tried again, Freeman just gave the same answer. But he did say that he had “checked” and that he had been told by people who were there that “all the guidance was followed”. As the Telegraph’s Cat Neilan points out, there was an obvious hole in Freeman’s argument.

• He said that “a ton of work” was being done in government to understand the possible impact of the Omicron variant. Asked on LBC whether experts were close to working out how “potent” Omicron was, Freeman, the science minister, said:

Yes, the chief scientist Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty and the team are literally monitoring the data on that. A ton of work is being done right now.

• He said ministers were taking advice on whether vaccines should be extended to children aged five to 11. He said:

The data at the moment suggests that young children are much less vulnerable but, as and when that data changes, we are guided by the science and we stand ready, which is partly why we have procured the vaccines – to make sure we can deliver what our citizens and patients need.

Good morning. It is the time of year when many of us are planning, looking forward to (or dreading) Christmas parties. But should you go ahead with them? If you are looking to the government for clear guidance, it is even foggier this morning than it has been.

On Tuesday Boris Johnson – once dubbed a Merrie England Tory, and obviously at the hedonistic end of the government spectrum – said that parties should go ahead. “We don’t want people to cancel such events,” he said at his press conference on Tuesday.

Last night Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, offered a nuanced alternative. Christmas should go ahead, she told ITV’s Peston programme, but she said it was best to avoid “snogging under the mistletoe”. Asked for clarification on the snogging point, she said: “Well, not with people you don’t already know!”

But this morning George Freeman offered an alternative take. Freeman is minister for science at the business department, and so perhaps he is more at the evidence-based end of the government spectrum (or killjoy end, as they would put it in the Covid Recovery Group). He told the Today programme that, while small firms might want to go ahead with a Christmas bash, bigger companies may prefer to rethink. He said:

Individual businesses, in the end, have to make judgments on what is appropriate internally. It slightly depends on the nature of the business. For many small businesses, four or five staff, who are working together every day anyway, gathering to have a drink isn’t a big step up in risk.

But some companies might normally bring hundreds of people in from around the world to a big party, and they may decide, this year, is that sensible given the pandemic and given where we are? In the end, I think business people know how to make those decisions.

But Freeman also said that his own parliamentary team – which is not a hundreds-strong outfit – would be having its do over Zoom. He told LBC:

I can tell you that my parliamentary team and I normally have a Christmas party. We’ve decided this year that it is probably sensible to do it by Zoom and wait for the spring. It won’t be the best party in the world.

We’ll be getting a lobby briefing later, and it will be interesting to see see whether Freeman gets the Jenny Harries treatment over what he’s said.

If you are confused, you should probably just make your own decision, which seems to be what the government thinks people should do anyway. Alternatively, you could try the approach that No 10 seems have adopted – which is to hold a party, but pretend you haven’t.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: The ONS publishes a report on long Covid.

10am: George Eustice, the environment secretary, gives a speech to the Country Land & Business Association conference. At 11.15am he holds a press conference.

After 10.30am: Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Commons, answers questions in the Commons about next week’s business.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

After 11.30am: Chris Bryant, chair of the Commons standards committee, makes a statement in the Commons about his committee’s new report proposing changes to the code of conduct for MPs.

2pm: The UK Health Security Agency publishes its weekly Covid surveillance report.

And at some point today Boris Johnson will get his booster vaccine. And Keir Starmer is visiting an offshore platform in the North Sea.

I will be covering UK Covid developments here, as well as non-Covid politics, but for global Covid developments, do read our global live blog.

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