Boris Johnson throws plans for lifting lockdown into confusion, suggesting he will abandon tiers system

Return to local restrictions - depending on Covid-19 threat in each area - had been expected

Boris Johnson has thrown plans for lifting the lockdown into confusion, suggesting he will abandon the expected return to a system of local tiers.

Ministers had said the government was likely to go back to the model of varying restrictions introduced last year, which depended on the level of the Covid-19 threat in each area.

But the prime minister said there were now only “a few discrepancies, a few differences” from area to area, since the more virulent variant of coronavirus took hold.

“It may be that a national approach, going down the tiers in a national way, might be better this time round, given that the disease is behaving much more nationally,” he said.

“If you look at the way the new variant has taken off across the country, it's a pretty national phenomenon. The charts I see, we're all sort of moving pretty much in the same sort of way.”

Only last Wednesday, the Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was very likely that the government would “try to make use of the tiered system” when devising an exit strategy.

“It’s sensible that we target restrictions on those places where the virus is most prevalent,” he argued.

Tier were first introduced in the autumn – when Mr Johnson rejected his scientists’ advice for a “circuit break” – and reintroduced after the second lockdown ended in December.

However, they were much tougher, reflecting the failure of the first tiers to control the pandemic, which meant pubs and restaurants were closed in almost all of England, for example.

Mr Johnson has said he will set out a road map for emerging from the latest lockdown in late February, but it will not begin until after schools have reopened – something currently pencilled in for 8 March.

Visiting a vaccination centre in West Yorkshire, he said, of the current Covid threat: “There are a few discrepancies, a few differences, so it may be that we will go for a national approach.”

However, he then added: “There may be an advantage still in some regional differentiation as well. I'm keeping an open mind on that.”

The prime minister also accepted an “issue” with some care home staff refusing the vaccine, but he said that take-up was now improving.

“That’s a great thing to see, and I’ve seen in the last few weeks a big increase in the receptivity of care home staff to the vaccinations,” he said.

Mr Johnson was more cautious on hopes for a summer holiday, after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock expressed confidence that Briton will enjoy a “happy and free” summer.

“I don't want to give too much concrete by way of dates for our summer holidays,” he told reporters.

“I am optimistic – I understand the reasons for being optimistic – but some things have got to go right. The vaccine programme has got to continue to be successful.

“We have got to make sure we don't get thrown off course by new variants, we have got to make sure that we continue to keep the disease under control and the level of infections come down.”