Dominic Raab says we can enjoy Christmas this year amid Omicron spread

Dominic Raab declared everyone can enjoy Christmas this year amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

The Deputy Prime Minister faced a grilling from Sky News anchor Trevor Phillips on Sunday after the Government imposed fresh measures on the travel industry on Saturday.

Despite the new rules, the politician was confident everyone would be able to enjoy Christmas in the weeks to come after the UK faced tough restrictions last year.

He said: “We are going into this Christmas. We can enjoy Christmas the way we couldn’t last year.

“It is a testament to vaccine. We have done right thing, we’ve taken a balanced response.”

However, the Secretary of State for Justice said he didn’t like the idea of a “straight jacket” approach to vaccines as he wasn’t sure mandatory vaccines were “fair or morally right”.

Elsewhere in the interview, Raab faced more tough questions from Mr Phillips.

Mr Phillips asked: “You could have applied the travel ban a week ago, isn’t it too late?”

Raab said the UK responded to the Omicron variant quicker than other countries across the globe - with the exception of Israel.

He added the testing rules were a “burden for the travel industry”.

Shadow Environment Secretary Jim McMahon later appeared to say the Government were “very late” on making calls to keep the borders safe.

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