this is bbc news. the headlines at 7... nearly 18 million people in london and south—east england move into stricter tier 4 restrictions from midnight — people must stay at home and nonessential shops have to close. for those in tier 4, it means the relaxation of rules at christmas has been scrapped and reduced to one day, the 25th, for the rest of england. we must be realistic. we're sacrificing the chance to see our loved ones this christmas so we have a better chance of protecting their lives so that we can see them at future christmases. the new restrictions are due to a spike in cases that's being blamed on a fast—spreading new variant of the disease. the whole of wales is to be placed under lockdown from midnight,

with festive rules cancelled for all but christmas day. scotland reduces the five—day festive window for mixing with other households indoors to just christmas day itself and imposes a strict travel ban between itself and the rest of the uk. and in half an hour, there is another chance to watch the prime minister's covid briefing from this afternoon, where he announced the new tier 4 and christmas restrictions. borisjohnson has announced a new tougher level of coronavirus restriction in england after scientists said a mutation of covid—19 was spreading rapidly in london, the south—east and east of the country. the variant is said to be much more

contagious but doesn't cause more serious illness. from midnight tonight, tier 4 restrictions will apply in all current tier 3 areas in the south east including london, kent, buckinghamshire, berkshire and hertfordshire — that's more than 17 milllion people. in this new tier, a stay—at—home order will be issued to residents except for those travelling to work or for education, there will be no christmas bubbles, social mixing will be restricted to meeting one other person in an open public space, nonessential shops will close, along with personal services such as gyms, beauty salons and hairdressers, no—one should enter or leave a tier 4 area, and there are also changes to the advice for those living in tiers 1—3 in england. the so—called christmas bubbles will be restricted to just christmas day. the advice is to remain local and not to travel internationally. our political editor, laura kuennsberg, has the full story.

another twist in 2020's terrible karma — the virus is outpacing politicians' and the public‘s attempt to get hold of itjust at the time of year when journeys are meant to bring us together. from midnight, travel from london's paddington or anywhere in the south—east will be banned, the government cancelling families' christmas plans. this couple have already decided not to see family. it was never a good idea tojust say, we shouldn't have any restrictions over a short period. it's not like covid is going to take a break or anything like that, so itjust made no sense whatsoever and it's messing with people's minds. this man from south london resolved his big family won't get together. i think i'm choosing to be wise and say, look, let's celebrate later on next year. i think the consequences of actually mingling are just too great. this man, a teacher, won't see his family from italy now either. it's a very annoying situation,

but i can't see it getting better because they're talking about now zone 4, which is even stricter. i can't understand what's stricter than this. the prime minister pushed to take action he decided against earlier this week. it is with a very heavy heart i must tell you we cannot continue with christmas as planned. in england, those living in tier 4 areas should not mix with anyone outside their own household at christmas, though support bubbles will remain in place for those at particular risk of loneliness or isolation. we have a particularly fast—moving problem with increased numbers in the area going into tier 4 but a generalised increase across the country. there were calls for you to drop the plans for christmas last week just a few days ago but, on wednesday, you told me and our viewers it would be inhuman to change the plans, and now that's exactly what you've done. aren't there millions of people

whose plans have just been torn up entitled to feel that you just left this too late? we of course bitterly regret the changes that are necessary but, alas, when the facts change, you have to change your approach, and the briefing that i had yesterday about this mutation of the virus, particularly about the speed of transmission, was not possible to ignore. professor whitty, if someone is packing a bag right now, listening to or watching this, trying to leave the south—east by midnight tonight, what should they do? my short answer would be, please unpack it at this stage. uk opposition leaders had already called for a rethink. i'm really frustrated because i raised this with the prime minister on wednesday, and he dismissed that and went on to tell people to have a merry little christmas, only three days later to rip up their plans, and i think the british public‘s entitled to more decisive leadership than that. they're getting confusion

where they need certainty. another upset, another change of heart in number 10. after a year many of us would rather forget, a christmas that may be remembered for all the wrong reasons too. nick eardley is with me. it is obviously and clearly a serious situation for the government to change its plants are rapidly in this way. what a difference 72 hours makes because a few days ago we were talking about a much stricter message when it came to christmas, urging people not to travel, but the rules being kept in place. something has changed in the last 2a hours which is the data that ministers are getting is extremely concerning, it has worried them and the scientific advisers who in a hastily arranged meeting last night to fight —— decided the action had to be taken, it was decided this morning that

this new tier 4 in england, something that boris johnson this new tier 4 in england, something that borisjohnson was desperate to avoid which some ministers had completely dismissed asa ministers had completely dismissed as a prospect but which clearly now is something that they think is necessary. i think borisjohnson will take a lot of political criticism for this because it was on wednesday that he accused others of wanting to cancel christmas, of saying it would be inhuman to cancel christmas. that is effectively what has happened for many people in tier 4 now and the millions of others in england it has been massively curtailed to one day. the defence minister —— their defence is that when science changes they have to also change their mind. we have travelled a long way in 72 hours and what happened today was still be a big surprise to many people. and what exactly does tearful mean for those of us who will be in it from midnight? it's not far off the lockdown that

england saw last month, so people will still be allowed to go out for exercise but you will not be allowed to meet a group of friends, the rule of six is abolished, you are allowed to meet one of the person outdoors from outside your household. supermarkets will stay open so for anyone that is panicking they have not bought christmas dinner that can still be done. if you have not finished your christmas shopping you are in trouble because nonessential shops will close from midnight tonight, it's really significant moment and although in these tier 3 areas restaurants and hospitality have closed for many people effectively society will be all but shut down. over the christmas period which means you cannot form christmas bubbles, that has gone in tier 4. it's not just christmas bubbles, that has gone in tier 4. it's notjust in england, massive parts of scotland, people are being told they will be in lockdown effectively from boxing day, in wales, lockdown is coming tonight, this is a big moment in the

pandemic for the uk. let us speak to the leader of the liberal democrats. your reaction to this turnaround from the government. my heart goes out to the millions of families who after an incredibly tough year for looking forward to christmas and now they have got all the upset of it being cancelled. and the sad fact is the prime minister has caused this upset the prime minister has caused this u pset yet the prime minister has caused this upset yet again by acting so late andi upset yet again by acting so late and i think people will increasingly call into question his competence because this is not the first time during this awful pandemic that he has dithered and delayed. he has not fully listen to the scientists and he has not been prepared to take the tough decisions until it caused maximum disruption, i feel so tough decisions until it caused maximum disruption, ifeel so sorry for the people whose christmases could been rearranged to the prime

minister had acted earlier. but he did argue that the scientific data did argue that the scientific data did not really come through until the last 72 hours or so so it wasn't really possible for him or the scientist advised him to make this massive decision any earlier.|j scientist advised him to make this massive decision any earlier. ijust don't buy that. many medical experts have been saying for some time com pletely have been saying for some time completely separate from this new strain of the virus, we had two of the leading medicaljournals coming together for a joint editorial, this has not happened for 100 years, calling on the prime minister, that the health evidence was bad enough already and he needed to change his attitude. the liberal democrats have been warning him that he needed to go back to the scientists, listen to them, and others have done that but he had ignored all those warnings, he had ignored all those warnings, he refused to take that tough decision, and i am so sorry for the

people out there who are now having to change plans, ring up their relatives and say, we will not be able to come now. it's heartbreaking. but i'm afraid the prime minister, rather than hiding behind this new virus, needs to take a look in the mirror. this is no longer about politics but about competence. we have a prime minister who keeps doing this. what are we in this mess? from the first lockdown in march, he was late, then he had delays sorting out ppe and test, trace and isolate, the care homes tragedy, he just doesn't have a grip, and it's difficult, iaccept that, and other governments and countries are struggling, but he has left our country with one of the worst death rates in one of the most damaged economies in europe. and there's no excuse for that. it is a tragedy for people. but he needs humility needs to accept some of the

blame. given the problem at hand is that this virus has mutated, it's getting worse, the situation is serious, what do you want to see happen after christmas when we re—evaluate the tier system? do you wa nt to re—evaluate the tier system? do you want to see the strict restrictions continue, are they necessary, do we need to carry on this way for much of the winter some people are suggesting? the liberal democrats have said from the very start, the prime minister needs to listen to the scientists and the experts and followed the advice and if the advices we do need to continue with difficult restrictions then he should do that. let's remember, one of the reasons why the liberal democrats think we would not be in this place if he had listened to the scientist before was back on the zist scientist before was back on the 21st of september the sage experts, government committee on science told him there needed to be a national circuit breaker, and he ignored that

advice. and as a result, we saw the pandemic take off again, the second wave really got going, and i would just say to the prime minister, there are difficulties and it may be a difficult decision in the new year to keep restrictions on, but take those decisions and take them quickly. your delays have meant huge extra hardship and great damage to the economy, and ijust hope of the christmas he looks in the mirror and realises that he has got to up his game because it's not good enough. he has had huge support from opposition parties, we have not made this a political issue. i don't think it's about politics but basic competence and doing the job. let's speak to stephen reicher, professor of social psychology at the university of st andrew's and a member of the behavioural science advisory group to sage.

do you think the government has done the right thing or is this too late? it probably should have been done before and even before the information about the new variant it was pretty clear that if we mix together it could lead to a huge spike in the level of infections in overwhelm the nhs are the modelling was suggesting that if everybody went to the limit of the rules, they met with three households of the five days, the likelihood is the r rate would go through the roof to about 3.5. even if only half of us mixed with two households, then the rate could well go up to 1.5 which would still be far too much, so in many ways this was inevitable and the information about the new variant just the information about the new variantjust made the information about the new variant just made it the information about the new variantjust made it clear that nobody could gnaw at it also its the right decision. -- ignore. what

would happen next in terms of what the government should do next? the restrictions we are seeing now will be in place for another two weeks i believe and then we will have a re—evaluation of what happens next, do you think we should move into stricter restrictions moving through january? stricter restrictions moving through january? let me give you a comparison with australia. today in australia, there has been an outbreak in sydney with 38 cases. in the uk, there were 35,000 cases a couple of days ago, so just 38 cases, that led to a very strict lockdown and a restriction on travel between states and there was one beautiful quote from someone who said, everyone thinks, let's go early, let's go hard and lets get this baby, and the one thing you learn throughout this pandemic is that if you don't go early and if you don't go hard then you don't get the virus, and it's really important to get on top of things because the

danger is, if you don't do enough, all that happens is that the virus stays around, there are more restrictions that last for longer, people begin to lose faith that the restrictions are effective and we are in the worst of all worlds in terms of the health and the economy. so it's really important we get on top of this virus, but not only in terms of the restrictions, the other questions as when you lift this restriction will be different to keep the infection down? we need to think much more carefully about our test intro system in order to be able to find infections where they happen and secondly we have got to support people to self—isolate anse thirdly we have got to reset things so that the spaces we go into our safe, particularly schools, notjust test people, make them safe in advance, so we need to coherent strategy that suppresses the virus alongside the vaccine coming along

and hopefully large numbers of people getting vaccinated in the early months of next year. but there isa early months of next year. but there is a counter argument that says if you go hard and go early and go to early and too hard the damage to the economy will be worse, and also people at the end of the day will get fatigue, they will get tired of really strict restrictions. who would definitely self—isolate if you told them there are 38 cases in this country? they wouldn't do it. the proof of the pudding is if you look around the world, the countries that have done well in terms of health and the economy are the ones who went early and when hard so in australia if you look at the rules for meeting they vary from state to state but for instance in houses, a0 or 50 people can meet where nobody can meet in the uk, the shops are open, the chips are open, you can have weddings of 300 people. when you act early and hard to suppress

the virus but then you can reopen quickly so the whole point is to get on top of the situation. in the final point, this point about behavioural fatigue, final point, this point about behaviouralfatigue, that final point, this point about behavioural fatigue, that is something that has come up time and again, and each time it has been proven to be a fantasy, a fallacy, so early on in the pandemic we were told we can't lockdown early because people were fed up with it, but then we found people put up with it magnificently despite the fact that many people were suffering and probably the dither and delay back in march led to probably tens of thousands of extra deaths. even in the second wave and we delayed the lockdown in october leading to a greater second spike. in october when you look at the figures and the

analysis of resilience and adherence, again the figures are remarkably high, with one exception, and the exception is in terms of self isolation were only 20% of people self—isolate that is because practically it is impossible to do without support, so it is not that people are psychologically weak, it is in the absence of strict measures in support for people so they can go along with them. if you look around the world to new zealand and australia and taiwan and poorer countries like vietnam, they are doing far better than we are. in australia, a country of 25 million people, 908 people have died so far. in the uk, twice as many people, over 80,000 people have died so the evidence is pretty clear, go early, go hard and support people to deal with the restrictions you ask them to abide by. the latest government figures on coronavirus show there were 27,052 cases in the latest 2a—hour period. the average number of new infections

reported per day in the last week is now 2a,752. 53a deaths were recorded in the last 2a hours — that's of people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test. on average in the past week, there were a36 deaths per day, bringing the total number of deaths across the uk to 67,075. the retail and hospitality sectors have faced unprecedented challenges this year because of the pandemic. today's announcement that all nonessential shops will have to close in areas moving into tier a will be a further blow to retailers in the last weekend before christmas. our business correspondent, katy austin, reports. there were plenty of shoppers out and about on london's oxford street this afternoon, but all nonessential stores will have to close after today under tier a. for this small men's clothes shop

in kent, it's a huge blow. it's devastating, awful. we've got another five days, i think, of trading up to christmas when we would take a lot of money, potentially, and we won't take a penny. this weekend, the last before christmas, would normally be one of the busiest, if not the busiest, weekend of the year for retailers. just today, more areas of england had moved into the tier 3 level of restrictions, meaning shops staying open while hospitality and entertainment venues closed apart from takeaways. the retailers' organisation said even tighter restrictions would have severe consequences. previous lockdowns have meant that store sales have fallen by between {1.5—2 billion a week, and that obviously is going to be even greater at this time of year, so it's vital that future support is targeted to those businesses by government that have been most affected.

the cbi business group said this afternoon it's right the government takes necessary steps to protect public health but said today's news would be a real kick in the teeth for many businesses already struggling badly. katie austin, bbc news. we will speak to the chief executive of —— to the chief executive of the british retail consortium about the impact of those new restrictions in a few minutes. nicola sturgeon has announced tighter festive restrictions for scotland, reducing a five—day window for mixing with other households indoors to just christmas day itself. let's hear what scotland's first minister had to say earlier. in order to reduce the risk of more of this strain imported into scotland, we intend to maintain a strict travel ban between scotland and the rest of the uk. unfortunately, and i am

genuinely sorry about this, that ban will remain in place right throughout the festive period. we simply cannot risk more of this new strain entering the country if we can possibly avoid it. that means people from scotland not visiting other parts of the uk and vice versa, cross—border travel for all but the most essential purposes is not permitted. we're also asking police scotland and transport operators to consider how the enforcement of this can be strengthened in the period ahead although of course how that is done is an operational matter for the chief constable. we will also review urgently over the next day or so the position on international travel, and i will update on that early next week but in the meantime my strong advice continues to be against nonessential foreign travel. thirdly, we have already advised that where possible people should celebrate christmas at home in their own household and meet with others outdoors only. the five—day flexibility

from the 23rd until the 27th of december was planned to recognise the impact of loneliness and the difficulty i know we all feel in leaving loved ones alone over christmas. however, earlier this week, we advised that people should meet indoors with other households if at all on no more than one day over the five—day period. given the concern we now have about this new strain, we now intend to change the law to allow indoor mixing in a bubble on christmas day only. from midnight on christmas day going into boxing day. in large parts of england, as the prime minister has just announced, that will not even be allowed. we will allow christmas day to go ahead but as we have said

from the start only use this flexibility if you really truly need to. this new strain makes that message all the more important. our advice is still not to meet indoors, even on christmas day, with other households if you can possibly avoid it. if you had people travelling to join you from elsewhere in the uk for christmas, that will no longer be permitted and equally it will no longer be permitted for any of us to travel to anywhere in the rest of the uk for christmas, we simply cannot take the risk of this strain travelling from different parts of the uk. let's take a look at those restrictions in more details. the whole country will be moved into the tightest level of restrictions from boxing day, the first minister has introduced a travel ban for people coming into mainland scotland, and the relaxtion of the christmas rules in scotland will be limited to christmas day. and for schools, the holiday period will be extended to the 11th january, but it will online learning only to the 18th january apart from children of key workers. wales is also introducing tighter restrictions, with the whole country moving

into lockdown from midnight. here's first minister mark drakeford. we've had new information shared with us today about the new variant and its seriousness and, as a result, as a cabinet, we have decided to bring forward to tonight the restrictions that were already planned for immediately after christmas and, over the christmas period itself, what would have been five days of relaxation are being collapsed simply into one day — christmas day itself. i know you were worried about that christmas period potentially being a super spreader event. are you still comfortable with that, even though it's just one day of relaxation? we know that there's more than one form of harm from coronavirus — there will be people who are lonely, who are isolated, who will have made plans for christmas day itself and, provided people go about it all carefully and responsibly, i think that is something we can accommodate, despite the seriousness

of the situation we face. what about support for businesses then that will have to close from midnight? you've already announced a package, but will that be accelerated in light of the restrictions being accelerated? we're doing our best to bring it forward as fast as we can with our colleagues in local government, and i've said today that any extra help that is made available to businesses in england, because of the prime minister's announcement, money that comes to wales because of that, all of that will be made available to businesses here in wales. let's speak to helen dickinson, chief executive of the british retail consortium. i'm assuming he would tell me that this will have a devastating impact on so many tailors on this important run—up to christmas. on so many tailors on this important run-up to christmas. indeed. you don't me —— you don't need me to

tell any of your listeners that december, the run—up to christmas is such a crucial time for many retail businesses. and our own build—up to the gift—giving which is such a critical part of christmas, so it is devastating news for those businesses that are affected in the new tearful areas and in different parts of the country where further restrictions will be applied. do you wa nt to restrictions will be applied. do you want to the government has taken this decision? i wasjust talking to one of the cabinet earlier this afternoon. the big message certainly to retail businesses is that all the investment that they have made in safety critical over the past month, so this is not about saying that nonessential retail is not safe, this is about encouraging us all as members of the public in those areas to stay—at—home. and that things

have moved so quickly over the past few days so what's really important now is for the government to make sure that the support needed for those businesses most affected gets targeted to them because they will have borne the brunt of this and its such disappointing news that such a critical time of year, so the shorter period that it can last, the sooner it is over the better for those businesses. the backdrop is one that is changing day by day. do you think there's enough support out there for all sized businesses right now who are affected? that is what i was discussing earlier this afternoon. i think what has been so valuable is the furlough scheme and the business rates relief, but what people are saying to me is what happens to that as we move into next

year because cash flows today are one thing but they have got to look at the security of their business going forward, and that is what the big question mark is, particularly on business rates relief, what happens in april next year? that is a critical question that the government will need to turn their might to as quickly as possible.|j know you have been talking to businesses up and down the country, which areas in particular have been worst hit by this? there are different categories, different geographies, the difference between out—of—town and local high streets versus urban centres, so it is clothing, footwear, beauty there have been the categories that have been most hard—hit, and also in city centres, so big centres that historically pre—pandemic was so reliant on heavy footfall, lots