Boris Johnson calls last orders for the North in new coronavirus lockdowns

Boris Johnson will on Monday unveil tough new regional lockdowns that are expected to see hundreds of pubs in the north-west of England closed for four weeks from 5pm on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister is expected to signal that six boroughs in Liverpool, covering 1.6 million people, could be the first to be placed in the highest tier of new restrictions.  Pubs, gyms, casinos, bookmakers and social clubs will be shut for at least a month and up to six months.

The regions deemed at highest risk could also face bans on households mixing indoors and outdoors, on overnight stays outside their area and on all but essential travel for work or education in or beyond the region.

These additional restrictions are not expected to be enforced in Liverpool for the time being.  However, the Army logistics corps has been called up to help with Covid testing and contact tracing in the region through mobile centres staffed by soldiers, and the Government has provided additional funds to pay for officials to help enforce the new rules.

Manchester faces similar restrictions to Liverpool, but was resisting on Sunday night as council leaders threatened legal action unless the Government increased its financial aid. Liverpool council chiefs were also demanding more money.

Tory and Labour council bosses said the new "oppressive" restrictions would cripple the hospitality industry unless the Government increased its contribution to workers' pay, while Tory MPs warned of economic damage if the measures were not time-limited.

Mr Johnson is taking a political gamble as he balances stark warnings from his scientific advisers that the UK is at a "tipping point" against fears that the economic harm from the restrictions will see the Conservatives lose support in "Red Wall" seats won from Labour at the last election.

The Government has been accused of discriminating against the North, with Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool, saying support was being given "on the cheap" and would be more generous if the measures affected London. The leader of Manchester City Council, Sir Richard Leese, described the system as being agreed in "the Westminster bubble".

The Prime Minister will use a Commons statement and televised Downing press conference to set out the new three-tier "Local Covid Alert Levels" system of restrictions dividing the country into "medium", "high" and "very high" risk areas. There will be a Commons debate and vote on the plans later this week.

Each region will have to agree a "base line" of measures with the Government but will be expected to add options from a "menu" of further restrictions.

Those in the "high risk" tier will continue with pub curfews until 10pm but will be expected to introduce restrictions barring households from mixing indoors, dubbed the "GOBI" approach – Good Outside, Bad Indoors – by officials. The restrictions in the medium tier remain the "rule of six" and 10pm curfews.

Council leaders in areas of high concern including parts of the North-East, West Yorkshire and the North-West held talks over the weekend to agree potential restrictions.

"Mayors have been saying they have not been involved. They are now. With that comes greater responsibility. We are introducing localism. We want them to own it," said a senior minister.

The Cabinet was briefed on the plans on Sunday afternoon, with ministers told that the Royal Liverpool University Hospital was on course to admit more people suffering from Covid than during the peak of the pandemic in the spring.

Liverpool and Knowsley continue to be two of the worst affected areas of the country for infections, with case rates in both areas now over 600 per 100,000. "The situation there is looking very ugly," said one minister.

Liverpool’s council chiefs spent the weekend negotiating with Sir Edward Lister, Mr Johnson's chief of staff, and Robert Jenrick, the Housing Secretary, before agreeing the closures in Liverpool, Wirral, Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton and Halton in return for extra funding for Covid marshals to help enforce the new restrictions.

Council chiefs softened the blow by agreeing that restaurants, including pubs serving sit down meals, would be exempted from the closures and stay open until 10pm. The new measures will have a "sunset" clause under which they will be reviewed monthly, but could last for six months.

Steve Rotheram, the Liverpool City Region Mayor, was still insisting on Sunday that the restrictions must come with more financial support for those in low wage jobs in hospitality businesses, who face having only two-thirds of their salary paid under the Chancellor's new furlough-style scheme rather than 80 per cent, as in March.

"We have been clear that new restrictions must come with the financial support to protect jobs and businesses. A deal isn't a deal until it is agreed," Mr Rotheram said.

Mr Anderson also said more financial support was needed and wrote on Twitter: "We have not agreed anything, we have been told this is what Government intends to do with 'no buts'."

Andy Burnham, Manchester's Mayor, raised the prospect of legal action unless the Government backed down on its 'furlough mark II' package. "There is a legal route, because why should a hospitality worker be treated differently to other workers whose businesses have closed?" he said.

It is expected to be decided on Monday whether a vote on the 10pm curfew will go ahead, with some 50 Conservative MPs ready to rebel.

There is growing unease at the economic impact of the curfew and the new restrictions. One senior Tory said a month before the "sunset" clause seemed "too long", adding: "There should be votes on each review perhaps every couple of weeks." He said Mr Johnson "must resist any grossly excessive restrictions that would cause permanent damage to the economy".

However, England's deputy medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, who will give a public data briefing on Monday, warned on Sunday that the UK had reached a "tipping point" in its coronavirus epidemic similar to that seen in March.

He said the seasons were "against us" and the country was running into a "headwind" with "clear evidence of a gradual spread into older age groups" in the worst-hit areas.

Britain recorded a further 12,872 coronavirus cases on Sunday in an 81 per cent increase on last week, with the country's daily total staying above the 10,000 mark for seven days in a row.

Oxford University professor Peter Horby, the chairman of the Government advisory group for new and emerging respiratory virus threats said Britain faced a "precarious position" as case numbers, hospital admissions and deaths continued to rise.

"We are already seeing in some parts of the North that some hospitals are starting to see the pressure," he said. "We have a doubling time of about eight to 15 days, so it is not long before those ICU [intensive care unit] beds could be full and we could be in a really difficult situation."

Asked whether the country faced a second national lockdown, he said: "I think that's a possibility, and we have to do what we can to avoid that at all costs."