Boris Johnson’s new Covid rules have been torn apart on the front pages of the UK’s leading newspapers.
A rash a damning “splashes” deride two aspects of the prime minister’s so-called Plan B, announced on Wednesday, which will see work-from-home guidance return and mask rules extended to combat the surging Omicron variant.
On the one hand, critics have pointed to the contradiction that means workers are being urged to stay away from the office – but Christmas parties are permitted. To this end, The Daily Telegraph leads with: ‘Don’t Go To Work, But Do Go To Parties’. An op-ed also asks: ‘Beginning of the end for Boris?’
Others have seized on the apparent hypocrisy following the controversy of the alleged Downing Street Christmas party that took place during lockdown last year.
Commentators have claimed the PM was using the new Covid restrictions as a diversionary tactic after Tuesday’s revelation of No.10 staffers joking about a party involving “cheese and wine”. The explosive revelation prompted the resignation of Johnson aide Allegra Stratton.
The Daily Mail goes with ‘One Rule For Them, New Rules For The Rest Of Us’, and The Daily Mirror echoes the theme with ‘Plan B For Us, Plan Lie, Lie, Lie For Them’. The Sun – which mocks up the prime minister as the Grinch –similarly has ‘Do As I Say, Not As I Christmas Do’.
It is perhaps notably supposedly supportive publications are leading the charge – in any case most papers follow the trend.
The Daily Star was perhaps the most imaginative – with the headline ‘Cluebo’ accompanied by the subhead: ’Captain Cock-up: It was everybody else, in the No 10 drawing room, with wine and nibbles ...”