Boris Johnson was warned that relaxing Covid-19 restrictions over Christmas would cause a spike in cases long before the new strain was revealed.
Number 10 last night insisted the change of plan - introducing Tier 4 restrictions and shortening the Christmas bubbles to one day in other tiers - was due to new information about the mutant strain.
But minutes of meetings of the SAGE advisory group as early as November were warning of the risks of loosening the restrictions over the festive period.
And on December 3 - before the new strain was revealed - they suggested reducing the planned five day Covid bubbles to one or two days would be "less risky." Yet even after these warnings, the Prime Minister berated Keir Starmer for wanting to