The plan B drawn by Boris Johnson at the time of the arrival of the variant on British territory will end on January 26, against the backdrop of a decline in the wave of contamination. A partly political decision, notes the press, at a time when the rebellion is growing within the Conservative Party, in the wake of the “partygate”.
Telework recommended? Ended. The vaccine passport? In the garbage. And the wearing of the mandatory mask indoors, too. Twenty-four hours after Scotland, England “let B-ton” in turn the sanitary restrictions intended to combat the latest wave of infections, enthuses the tabloid The Sun. A pun alluding to the “plan B” to fight the pandemic drawn up by Boris Johnson in December, when the Omicron variant arrived on British territory. “Most of the measures will end on January 26, develops the conservative newspaper. The instruction linked to telework, on the other hand, is lifted as of today.
Before the House of Commons, the Prime Minister made it clear that “we will continue to recommend wearing a mask in confined spaces”. Pupils in secondary education will be exempted from Thursday 20 January. “News welcomed with joy on the benches of the conservative majority”, relate The Guardian.
Below 100,000 cases per day
“We were right to take these tough steps”, insisted the head of government. “But also not to harden them as some demanded at Christmas time”, congratulates himself The Sun. In the UK, the Omicron wave “seems indeed to be ebbing”, highlighted The Spectator, after peaking at four million cases. “And this even if regional disparities remain.”
Concretely, when France recorded a record number of positive tests (464,769), Tuesday January 18, the average of new daily infections in the country fell back below the 100,000 mark. “Unfortunately, the number of deaths is still increasing, relieves The Sun, which is consistent: after a sharp rise in cases, deaths occur a few weeks later.”
“In the name of God, go!”
At the same time, the British press cannot help but regard as “particularly political” the decision to eliminate the restrictions in full “partygate”. The aim is to calm the wrath of Conservative MPs after the revelations linked to the clandestine parties organized in the official residence of the Prime Minister during the successive confinements. “The goal, beyond demonstrating the success of the approach chosen to fight against Omicron, was also to make concessions to the majority parliamentarians most opposed to the restrictions”, to analyse The Sun.
It must be said that the clouds are gathering over Downing Street: behind the scenes, several Conservative MPs elected for the first time in the 2019 legislative elections, so far loyal to Boris Johnson, would activate to trigger a vote of no confidence in the against their leader. Shortly before the start of the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session on Wednesday, one of them even defected to join Labour. “A first in fifteen years”, according to the calculations of Daily Telegraph. To make matters worse, former Brexit minister David Davis split, in the middle of the session, a call for resignation. “In the name of God, go”, he launched to Boris Johnson, taking up a formula addressed to the former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in May 1940.
“It’s called turning the knife in the wound., details the conservative newspaper. Boris Johnson, the worshiper of Winston Churchill”, compared to one of the most maligned British leaders in history for failing to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War
S. M.