Boris Johnson warns there will be no 'big bang' release from lockdown and Matt Hancock is berated by furious Tories demanding an end date as they warn the new curbs lasting until APRIL will 'break' many people

Boris Johnson today warned there will not be a 'big bang' release from the latest national lockdown as Matt Hancock was berated by furious Tory MPs who demanded an end date for the new curbs. 

The Prime Minister's national shutdown, which includes a strict stay at home message and the closure of schools, is due to be reviewed in the middle of February but the laws underpinning it are not due to expire until the end of March. 

Mr Johnson has said he hopes the rules can start to be lifted in the spring but he has failed to give a firm commitment, fuelling Tory fears that the restrictions could be in place far longer than the initial seven weeks. 

Mr Johnson stressed that when rules are eased there will be a 'gradual unwrapping' of lockdown rather than an immediate end as he dashed hopes of a swift return to normal life. 

Senior Tories accused the Prime Minister of launching an 'assault on liberty and livelihoods' as they warned lockdown will inevitably cause some people to 'break'. 

Mr Hancock ducked demands to give a firm end point for lockdown as he suggested that even if the vaccine rollout happens by mid-February, curbs might have to stay if deaths do not fall.

The Health Secretary came under fire from his own side as he kicked off the debate on the regulations underpinning the brutal squeeze - which has already come into effect.

Mr Hancock faced repeated calls to give guarantees about the length of the restrictions, after it emerged they will not expire until March 31 despite Mr Johnson vowing to get more than 13million vulnerable Britons vaccinated by the middle of next month.

But while he insisted the Government does not 'expect' the blanket restrictions to last for three months, the Cabinet minister refused to say they will definitely be lifted at that stage.

He also hedged when he was challenged by Mark Harper, head of the CRG group of lockdown-sceptic Conservatives, that there could be no 'possible reason' for maintaining lockdown after the four most vulnerable categories of people are vaccinated. 

'We have to see the impact of that vaccination on the reduction in the number of deaths, which I very much hope that we will see at that point, and so that is why we will take this – an evidence-led move down through the tiers, when we've broken the link, I hope, between cases and hospitalisations and deaths,' Mr Hancock said.

'We will need to see those numbers of – we will need to see the protection in reality, in lived reality on the ground, but we will watch this like a hawk and my aim is to keep these restrictions in place not a moment longer than they're necessary.'

Making a statement earlier, the PM said he hoped measures will be able to be lifted in mid-February but warned there will not be a 'big bang' out of lockdown, rather a 'gradual unwrapping'.  

MPs will vote retrospectively to approve the measures tonight, but there is no prospect of them being rejected as Labour is supportive and few Tories will rebel.

Underlining the reasons why the clampdown was needed, the latest figures today showed the UK recorded another 62,322 cases and 1,041 deaths.  

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was berated by Tory MPs today as he defended the Government's latest lockdown

Gavin Williamson confirms TEACHERS will decide GCSE and A-Level grades

Teachers will decide school pupils' GCSE, A-level and AS-level grades this summer after exams were scrapped due to Covid-related school closures, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed today.

The exams that were due to be sat in May and June this year will be replaced by school-based assessments, he told the Commons in a statement this afternoon. 

The under-pressure minister finally faced MPs amid chaos over the decision to close schools during the new lockdown.

He told MPs schools will be required to produce between three and five hours of online lessons per day while they are closed for up to three months.   

Telling MPs that 'our schools have not suddenly become unsafe', he said they are 'much better prepared than last March' to implement home-learning. 

He said: 'We have set out clear, legally binding requirements for schools to provide high-quality remote education. This is mandatory for all state-funded schools and will be enforced by Ofsted.

'We expect schools to provide between three and five hours teaching a day, depending on the child's age. If parents feel their child's school is not providing suitable remote education they should first raise their concerns with the teacher or headteacher and, failing that, report the matter to Ofsted.' 

He added: 'I will not apologise for being enthusiastic to ensure that we had been able to be in a position to roll out exams - but we do recognise where we are as a result of this pandemic, we have to take a different course and that is why we're taking the route we are.' 

He said the details of how the teacher assessments would work were being 'fine-turned' along with Ofsted, exam boards and teaching unions.

Delivering a statement to the House earlier, Mr Johnson desperately tried to win over furious Tory MPs as he defended his new national coronavirus lockdown and insisted he had 'no choice' but to impose tough new draconian curbs.

The Prime Minister told a recalled House of Commons this morning that his hand had been forced after a new variant of the disease was found to be spreading with 'frightening ease'. 

Mr Johnson said the Government's vaccination programme meant almost one quarter of over-80s had already received jabs and England had vaccinated more people 'than in the rest of Europe combined'. 

He said an Office for National Statistics study which suggested one in 50 people are infected showed it is 'inescapable that the facts are changing' and the Government's response had to follow suit.

Mr Johnson resisted called to guarantee the rules will start to be eased after the first review on February 15. 

But some Tory backbenchers slammed the PM's 'malicious' lockdown and accused him of an 'assault on liberty and livelihoods' as they demanded an exit strategy.   

Mr Johnson made clear that a successful roll-out of the vaccine programme will be key to determining when the lockdown measures can be lifted. 

He said: 'We have already vaccinated more people in this country than in the rest of Europe combined and we will give the House the maximum possible transparency about our acceleration of this effort, publishing daily updates online from Monday so that jab by jab honourable members can scrutinise the process being made every day. 

'Yet as we take this giant leap towards finally overcoming the virus and reclaiming our lives we have to contend with the new variant which is between 50 and 70 per cent more contagious. 

'The tiers the House agreed last month, was working with the old variant but alas, this mutation spreading with frightening ease and speed in spite of the sterling work of the British public, this mutation has led to more cases than we have seen ever before, numbers that alas cannot be explained away by the meteoric rise in testing.'

Mr Johnson said the ONS report published yesterday showing the extent of infections across the country as well as rising hospitalisations showed it was 'inescapable that the facts are changing and we must change our response'.

He told MPs: 'So we had no choice but to return to a national lockdown in England with similar measures being adopted by the devolved administrations so that we can control this new variant until we can take the most likely victims out of its path with vaccines.' 

As Mr Hancock opened the debate on the lockdown, Conservative Sir Graham Brady chairman of the powerful backbench 1922 Committee, intervened to say: 'Approving these regulations today would allow for lockdown for three months until the end of March.'

Sir Graham said the PM had assured him he did not expect MPs to have to 'wait that long' for an opportunity to decide whether or not to end the regulations.

Sir Graham added: 'Will he go further and give a commitment to a further vote at the end of January and end of February, so this House will have control over what is happening?'

Mr Hancock replied: 'While these regulations do provide for new restrictions until the end of March, it is not because we expect the full national lockdown to continue until then but to allow the steady, controlled and evidence-led move down through the tiers on a local basis.

'Those tier changes do require a vote in Parliament. The restrictions will therefore be kept under continuous review, there's a statutory requirement to review every two weeks and a legal obligation to remove them if they're no longer deemed necessary to limit the transmission of the virus.'

Former chief whip Mr Harper asked: 'Once we've vaccinated those four groups and they've got immunity and we've taken care therefore of 80 per cent of the risk of death, what possible reason is there at that point for not rapidly relaxing the restrictions that are in place on the rest of our country?' 

Meanwhile, Sir Charles Walker warned the next three months will be 'really, really hard for a lot of people' as he said he could not support the rules. 

‘These are people who are going to be worrying about their jobs, about their future, about their mental health, about their family relationships because they will miss people terribly, or they will be in very small environments where apparently they can only leave to exercise once a day and then sadly some of these people are going to break and it is going to be too much for them,' he said.

When Mr Johnson announced the lockdown on Monday night he said the measures would be reviewed in the middle of February. 

But the regulations being voted on by MPs this afternoon are due to last in law until the end of March. 

Mr Johnson tried to assuage Tory fears that the measures could still be in place in April but also insisted the nation must be 'extremely cautious about the timetable ahead'.  

He said: 'As was the case last spring our emergence from the lockdown cocoon will not be a big bang but a gradual unwrapping. 

'That is why the legislation this House will vote on later today runs until March 31, not because we expect the full national lockdown to continue until then but to allow a steady, controlled and evidence-led move down through the tiers on a regional basis, carefully brick-by-brick, as it were, breaking free of our confinement but without risking the hard won gains that our protections have given us.' 

Mr Johnson said schools will be the 'very first things to reopen' when lockdown measures can start to be eased. 

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour will support the new lockdown as he warned the UK is facing 'perhaps the darkest moment of the pandemic'.

But he said the situation is not the result of 'bad luck' and that it 'follows a pattern' as he accused the Government of failing to heed the warnings of experts and of repeatedly failing to act swiftly enough. 

'In the first wave of the pandemic the Government was repeatedly too slow to act and we ended 2020 with one of the highest death tolls in Europe and the worst-hit economy of major economies,' he said. 

'In the early summer, a Government report called 'Preparing for a challenging winter' warned of the risk of a second wave, of the virus mutating and of the NHS being overwhelmed. 

'It set out the preparations the Government needed to take, I put that report to the Prime Minister at PMQs in July.

'Throughout the autumn Track and Trace didn't work. Sage advised a circuit-break in September but the Prime Minister delayed for weeks before acting.

'We had a tiered system that didn't work and then we had the debacle of the delayed decision to change the rules on mixing at Christmas.

'The most recent advice about the situation we're now in was given on December 22 but no action was taken for two weeks until Monday of this week. 

'These are the decisions that have led us to the position we're now in – and the vaccine is now the only way out and we must all support the national effort to get it rolled out as quickly as possible.' 

There is growing anger on the Tory backbenches over the Government's handling of the pandemic.

Boris Johnson under fire over delayed border testing plan

Boris Johnson was under pressure today to sort out plans to demand people have a negative Covid test result before they enter Britain. 

Ministers have indicated that such a requirement is coming in a bid to block any influx of new variants of coronavirus after a South African strain was found in the UK.

But no firm details have yet been released and the Prime Minister came under fire in the Commons today over when they will be brought in and how much notice will be given. 

It came as new figures from Labour showed that just three in every 100 people arriving in the UK are being checked to see if they are complying with quarantine requirements.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has written to Priti Patel to demand 'an urgent review and improvement plan of quarantine arrangements'. 

He claimed the current system of checking up on only a fraction of people is leaving the UK 'defenceless and completely exposed' to importing coronavirus variants. 

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer took aim at the PM in the Commons today as politicians returned to vote on the new lockdown rules.

'The Prime Minister knows there is real concern about the rapid transmission of this disease. There are new strains being detected in South Africa, Denmark and elsewhere. The quarantine system isn't working,' Sir Keir said.

'The Prime Minister said yesterday that we will be bringing in extra measures at the border. I have to ask, why are those measures not introduced already? They have been briefed to the media for days but nothing has happened.'

Mr Johnson gave no details and only offered a bland statement, saying: 'I think it is vital we protect our borders and protect this country from the readmission of the virus from overseas and that is why we took tough action in respect of South Africa when the new variant became apparent there and we will continue to take whatever action is necessary to protect this country from the readmission of the virus.'  

Some senior Conservative MPs had joined the Opposition in calling for the introduction of another national lockdown. 

But the idea of hardening the restrictions sparked fury from other Conservatives, who insisted the country's experience of the pandemic shows that lockdowns do not work and are crippling the economy. 

Tory MP Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group of lockdown sceptics, has demanded a 'substantial relaxation' of the restrictions as soon as the four top priority groups have been vaccinated.

Writing in the Telegraph he said: 'Achieving this crucial goal must now become the central, overriding focus of the Government. 

'We need to start seeing daily vaccination reports updating MPs and the public to ensure we are making the progress we need.'

He added: 'Once these groups have been vaccinated, and have become immune to the disease, this should be a clear threshold for when a substantial relaxation in restrictions can begin.'

Tory colleague and fellow CRG member Steve Baker later tweeted that he agreed with Mr Harper, adding: 'Once the most vulnerable have been vaccinated, draconian restrictions must be substantially removed.'

Many Conservative MPs are pushing the Government to spell out the exact circumstances in which the lockdown will be lifted. 

Tory former minister Jeremy Wright told Mr Johnson in the Commons the Government needed to be 'more definitive' on when curbs could be eased. 

A furious Sir Desmond Swayne blasted the restrictions, telling Mr Johnson: 'Pubs can't compete with supermarkets for off sales, even within a household you can't play tennis or golf. 

'Notwithstanding the assault on liberty and livelihoods, why are these regulations pervaded by a pettifogging malice?' 

Mr Johnson replied: 'Pettifogging, yes, malicious, no. I am going to have to take the hit here, the intention is to stop the virus, protect the NHS and to save lives.

'To do that we have to engage in restricting transmission between human beings.' 

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said 'many' MPs are concerned at being asked to approve a lockdown which could last until the end of March.

Speaking in the Commons he said: 'I welcome the Prime Minister's assurance that this House will be consulted on the lifting of restrictions, should it be possible before the end of March, but can I say to him that many of us are concerned at being asked to approve a lockdown which could continue until March 31.

'Can I ask (Mr Johnson) to reconsider and to offer the House a vote at the end of January and at the end of February as well, not on whether to lift restrictions, but on whether to continue them or not?'

Mr Johnson replied: 'I can't believe it will be until the end of March that the House has to wait before having a new vote and a new discussion of the measures we have to take.'

Conservative former minister Sir Edward Leigh said many of his colleagues who will vote in favour of the rules 'out of loyalty or because we want to preserve the Government's authority' are 'worried' about successive lockdowns being 'less and less effective'. 

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson is facing a Cabinet split over his decision to close schools across England. 

The Prime Minister initially sided with hawks led by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who wanted classes to remain open.

But he switched to agree with doves including Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Michel Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, after being presented with new data showing the scale of the problem facing the nation, the Financial Times reported.   

Mr Johnson's statement to MPs came after the Government's vaccines tsar today admitted that the NHS will need to be giving around three million vaccine doses a week by February to meet the PM's target.    

Nadhim Zahawi said the goal of covering more than 13million of the most vulnerable within seven weeks was 'very stretching' – but can be delivered.

There is a growing clamour today for the vaccination process to be ramped up - with concerns that local chemists and other facilities are not being used enough. 

So far around 1.3 million people in the UK have been vaccinated with the Oxford/AstraZeneca or Pfizer/BioNTech jabs and Mr Zahawi said there will be a 'massive acceleration' in the coming days.

Challenged that the weekly figure would need to be more like three million than two million to hit the PM's target, Mr Zahawi nodded and said: 'You're going to see that increase – the NHS have got a very clear plan.

'We've got a fantastic team working, seven days a week, all hours to deliver this.

'No doubt, it is a stretching target. But I think it's one that we should absolutely look to deliver.'