Politico | Boris Johnson urges a (confusing) little Christmas
- British prime minister strengthens his advice to limit contact over the holidays but declines to change the law
- The confusing picture adds to a year of communications blunders from Johnson’s government
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Charlie Cooper on politico.eu on December 16, 2020.
It’s the new “go to work, don’t go to work”.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson risked a public backlash on Wednesday with new guidance on how people in England should spend Christmas. He advised against overnight stays and travel from areas with a lot of coronavirus cases, like London, but declined to change laws that enable people to form “Christmas bubbles” of three households with family and friends between December 23 and 27.
With infection rates rising again in many parts of the UK, Johnson said he and the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had decided the situation going into the festive season was “worse and more challenging than we had hoped when we first set the rules”.
However, rather than scrap Christmas bubbles, announced only a month ago, Johnson said he was instead urging people to demonstrate “the greatest possible personal responsibility” and have a “smaller” and “shorter” Christmas.
