Tier 4 restrictions may be necessary for ‘couple of months’ says UK health secretary

People shopping on Oxford Street in central London before the new restrictions come in (PA)

Restrictions which forced millions of people across the UK to tear up their Christmas plans may have to remain for “the next couple of months”, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has suggested.

In England, Boris Johnson effectively cancelled Christmas for almost 18 million people in London, south-eastern and eastern England as the region was put into a new two-week lockdown from Sunday.