JUNE 21 DREAMS ARE DASHED

Freedom Day set to be delayed until July 19 – but PM will promise to review it after 2 weeks if hospital admissions remain low

‘Livelihoods are at permanent risk’

BORIS Johnson is set to delay the end of lockdown until July 19 after doctors urged him to wait until more people have been double jabbed.

After a sharp rise in cases of the Indian variant, Cabinet sources last night conceded that Freedom Day on June 21 was ‘not looking great’, with a four-week extension to Covid restrictions now ‘most likely’.

But in a bid to appease Tory MPs and ministers – including Chancellor Rishi Sunak – who are keen to unleash the economy, the Prime Minister is expected to promise a review after a fortnight. This could allow curbs to be ditched earlier if hospital admissions remain low.

Under the PM’s Covid roadmap, June 21 was supposed to be the day when all social distancing curbs were lifted and the workfrom-home advice abandoned. Mr Johnson will make a final decision tomorrow night, before making an announcement to the nation on Monday evening.

But officials told the Mail last night that the debate in Downing Street was now concentrated on whether to ‘ pause’ the reopening by two weeks or four.

In a significant intervention, the British Medical Association called on Mr Johnson to hold off until more people had received both doses of the vaccine.

Its council chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul said the figures showed more time was needed to get the vaccine to more people.

‘With only 54.2 per cent of the adult population currently fully vaccinated and many younger people not yet eligible, there is a huge risk that prematurely relaxing all restrictions will undo the excellent work of the vaccine programme and lead to a surge of infections,’ he said.

Weddings could still get an exemption, with the 30-person cap on guests lifted on June 21 to allow the big weddings that many couples have booked to go ahead.

However, the delay to lifting the remainder of the curbs – which ban nightclubs opening, limit crowds at theatres and sporting events, restrict capacity indoors at pubs and restaurants and prevent people meeting in large groups – is likely to enrage many MPs, hospitality leaders and business chiefs.

The Mail revealed this week that Mr Sunak had told Mr Johnson he could live with a delay of ‘a week or two’ but would resist any further slippage as this could involve extending the furlough scheme.

Last night, nightclubs and bars threatened to sue the Government if the planned lifting of restrictions was postponed. Andrew Lloyd Webber has already warned that he could take ministers to court if they do not allow theatres to operate at full capacity as planned.

And yesterday furious Tory MPs warned they will use every mechanism at their disposal to resist the delay of Freedom Day.

Julian Sturdy, the Conservative MP for York Outer, said: ‘Despite what lockdown supporters claim, it is simply not just a few extra weeks. People’s livelihoods, mental health and our long-term freedoms are at permanent risk.’

The move towards delaying June 21 came after the number of cases of the Indian variant – also known as the Delta variant – increased by 240 per cent in a week. Public

Health England said the infections had risen from 12,431 to 42,323 in the latest seven- day period, an increase of 29,892 cases. The majority of cases appeared to be among the unvaccinated. The R-rate of reproduction also increased yesterday to between 1.2 and 1.4.

In a further sign that a delay is likely, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi yesterday stressed the importance of being ‘really careful’ in lifting coronavirus restrictions and urged against ‘squander(ing) those hard-fought gains’ made by the vaccination programme.

At the G7 summit in Cornwall yesterday, Mr Johnson told fellow world leaders that it was important not to ‘repeat some of the errors that we doubtless made in the course of the last 18 months’. The PM has been criticised for not locking down sooner last year.

Kate Nicholls, the boss of UK Hospitality, said last night: ‘Any delay in the roadmap would have a devastating effect on an already fragile hospitality sector.

‘A one-month delay would cost the sector £3 billion in sales and push many businesses even closer to the cliff edge of failure, meaning more job losses.’