The Labour Party has been accused of flip-flopping over Covid measures after Sir Keir Starmer said he does not want a circuit-breaker lockdown despite previously calling for one.

The Labour leader said he did not support new restrictions over the Christmas period because the current situation was “different” to previous virus waves when his party called for lockdown measures.

His comments, in an interview to be aired on Times Radio on Friday, come days after Labour said that it would vote for a circuit-breaker if Boris Johnson proposed one.

On Monday, Andy Slaughter, a Labour frontbencher, said: “Ministers know something has to be done. The sooner they do it, the better it will safeguard people.”

Sir Keir called for a short lockdown in autumn last year when the second wave of Covid had just begun. Despite Mr Johnson’s decision not to impose a circuit-breaker before Christmas Day, the Labour leader did not repeat that call this year.

“If we look at the new variant, the numbers are a cause for concern,” he said. “The hospitalisations are different than they were last autumn, when we called for the circuit-break… sorry, the autumn before when we called for the circuit-break.”