Three-quarters of the country will be under tier 4 restrictions from 00:01 on Thursday. Following the announcement in the House of Commons, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said this was primarily due to the rapid spread of the new variant of coronavirus. The shadow health secretary, Jon Ashworth, said the virus was 'out of control' and that the situation his Leicester constituents were enduring was 'horrific'

Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► http://bit.ly/guardianwiressub

Coronavirus – latest updates ► https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/dec/30/coronavirus-live-news-uk-approves-oxford-astrazeneca-vaccine-updates

See all our Covid coverage ► https://www.theguardian.com/world/coronavirus-outbreak

Support the Guardian ► https://support.theguardian.com/contribute

Today in Focus podcast ► https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/todayinfocus

The Guardian YouTube network:

The Guardian ► http://www.youtube.com/theguardian
Guardian Football ► http://is.gd/guardianfootball
Guardian Sport ► http://bit.ly/GDNsport
Guardian Culture ► http://is.gd/guardianculture