Since the pandemic began last year, the whole United Kingdom has Day four of 2021.

Onda returned to a national locked down in England after the UK was moved into the highest covert alert level.

That means the NHS is a risk of being overwhelmed unless action is taken after a 30% increase in co vid patients in hospitals in England in the last week.

With most of the country already under extreme measures, it's clear that we need to doom or together to bring this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out in England.

We must therefore go into a national lock down which is tough enough to contain this variant.

That means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home.

The changes in England to become law early on Wednesday morning will last until the middle of next month.

During an emergency recall of the Commons on Wednesday, MPs will vote retrospectively on the changes to close all schools and colleges toe all pupils apart from Children off key workers on vulnerable Children.

Most university students will also not be able to return to university.

Nurseries will remain open.

Introduce a reinforced stay at home message along the lines of the rules from last March.

With limited exemptions such as going out toe exercise and doing essential shopping, everyone must work at home unless impossible to do so.

On banning outside sport, though, elite sport will continue announcing a near a pries of the stringent measures of last spring goes against every fiber in Boris Johnson's libertarian being.

As recently as yesterday, he had hoped to keep schools open a little longer, but a journey he knew he would soon have to embark on was hastened as the prime minister was presented today with overwhelming evidence off the spread of the new coronavirus strain across the country on, there will be tough new restrictions in other parts of the UK We have decided to introduce from midnight tonight for the tradition off January, a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes.

This is similar to the lock Down off march last year.

A former health secretary who had called for a national lock down earlier in the day welcomed the prime minister's announcement.

This new strain is being pretty unpredictable on, you know, in fairness to to make this announcement on the very day that everyone has sent their Children back to school, show someone who is prepared to take extremely difficult decisions in the middle of a pandemic, and he won't have done so lightly at all.

So I would rather not sort of jump on the bandwagon and say It's too late and he's changed his mind because actually, I want a prime minister who looks at the evidence dispassionately and takes tough, difficult, even embarrassing, decisions if it's the right thing to do to get a pandemic under control.

Labor accused the prime minister off acting too slowly.

We were warned right at the start of this from the World Health Organization.

Act quickly, act with speed.

John Sunni.

Sort of diversity delays.

And he's always the last.

So grasp the seriousness of the situation we're in.

We started yesterday.

He was on the BBC saying schools are safe tonight.

He's saying schools are a major factor in transmission off the virus.

E mean he's just ricochet ing around like like hasn't got a grip.

But you know, leaving that aside, he's done the right thing in imposing a national lock down.

It's not only the former government chief scientific adviser had earlier forecast the need for action theme or transmissible the title of the restrictions that are needed.

Andi, I someone said that we need to all act as though we were infected, and we just have to keep apart as far as we possibly can.

A quiet start to the year with little hustle on our high streets.

Soon there will be even quieter, leaving room for others to Rome.