Parliament will be recalled if there is a need for any further Covid restrictions over the Christmas holidays, Grant Shapps has insisted.
The transport secretary said, however, that he hoped the “plan B” measures – approved last night by MPs despite almost 100 Tories rebelling – will “see us through to the New Year”.
“The one thing I can say for certain is if we did need to do anything else Parliament would be recalled too in order to vote on doing that — it wouldn’t just be an automated thing,” he added, after the demand was made by backbench Tory MPs.
In a separate interview, the cabinet minister also said he believed “with some confidence” that no further Covid restrictions will be required in England before Christmas.
“We want people to be able to enjoy Christmas this year. We are certainly in a better position than we were this time last year. We want people to be sensible but to enjoy their Christmas,” he told Sky News.
“I think that, with some confidence, that we can say that people are going to be able to enjoy their Christmas get-together with their friends and families with only what has already been (announced).”
However, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Graham Medley, a professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said Covid hospital admissions could reach 2,000 a day.
“Most of the infections at the moment are in young adults, so these are people who are far less likely to need hospital treatment in any case,” he said.
“But in the past, in previous waves, we’ve seen that move out into more older and more vulnerable generations and there’s no reason to suspect that won’t happen during this wave. And then the numbers of people who end up in hospital is some combination of when people get infected, their vaccination status, as well as what Omicron is doing.
The member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) added: “I think it is a very real possibility that if the numbers of infections increasing continues in the way that it has done and it spills out into older age groups than we could see the number of people being omitted to hospital getting very large and certainly going over the thousand, maybe up to 2,000 a day.”
Mr Shapps’ comments came after Boris Johnson suffered a revolt of almost 100 Tory MPs as the government introduced “plan B” measures, including the extension of the mandatory use of face masks and Covid passes for large venues, on Tuesday evening.
During the debate, the former Conservative chief whip Mark Harper also pressed Sajid Javid, the health secretary, to commit to giving MPs a say in the event of further restrictions being brought in during recess.
The House of Commons is scheduled to stop for Christmas at the close of business on Thursday and return on January 5.
Mr Harper asked: “Is he able now at the despatch box to commit that if the government were to take further measures to deal with omicron during the recess, that the government would recall the House of Commons so that we’re able to have all of the evidence and participate in taking those decisions on behalf of the constituents we represent?”
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told MPs he would back the move and joked he and a Labour frontbench colleague have already agreed who will bring the Christmas dinner and who will provide the pudding for any festive sitting.
