Covid: Prime Minister explains why Brighton is not in Tier 4

Much of the region was put under stringent restrictions at midnight on Saturday to contain a new strain of coronavirus identified in the area.

London, Kent, the majority of Essex, Portsmouth and parts of East Sussex were among the areas to be placed into Tier 4.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosted a coronavirus Downing Street briefing today

But most of Sussex remains in Tier 2.

Boris Johnson was quizzed on the reason for this during a coronavirus press conference this afternoon.

David from Portsmouth, appearing via a video link, asked the Prime Minister why Portsmouth had been placed in Tier 4 while nearby areas remained in Tier 2.

He said: "Living in Portsmouth, we stand alone in Hampshire as a Tier 4 area, surrounded by Tier 2 boroughs such as Fareham - which shares our major hospital.

• LIVE UPDATES: Boris Johnson hosts a Downing Street coronavirus briefing

"We have family who live no more than five minutes away who are classed as Tier 2, but we cannot celebrate (Christmas) with them under the Tier 4 restrictions.

"When the government introduced Tier 4, why was this not blanket applied to the whole South East?

"Is the Prime Minister stating that this new Covid strand, which is 70 per cent more transmissible, will not be able to cross into different council boroughs which, in some cases, are no more than 100 yards away from each other?"

Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Mr Johnson said he "fully understands the frustrations of people who feel they are in too high a tier" and those who were living just a short distance from an area with far fewer restrictions.

He said: "We have to act on the basis of the epidemiology as we see it.

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"We looked at where the new variant was, where it was spreading, and acted to restrict it there.

"And, of course, we will keep those measures under review every couple of weeks."