As Mr Johnson made the announcement at Prime Minister’s Questions, he came under further scrutiny over Downing Street parties after a picture emerged showing him near an open bottle of sparkling wine at a Christmas quiz. 

The photo shows the Prime Minister and two members of staff, one with tinsel draped around their neck, near a bottle of alcohol and an open packet of crisps at the Christmas quiz, which happened during Covid restrictions. See the picture here. 

It comes after one of the Prime Minister’s health ministers apologised for continuing with a face-to-face meeting despite being told she had tested positive for Covid.

Child vaccinations

Any decision to bring forward the end of Covid rules will also have a bearing on the debate about whether to vaccinate children. 

A decision on whether to give the jab to 12 to 17 year olds is thought to be imminent but one leading medical expert has said today that the UK is “past the point” where vaccinating healthy children will make a difference. 

Paul Hunter, the Professor in Medicine at the University in East Anglia, said that it was now likely that many children have “probably had multiple Covids by now and so working out the risks” is not easy to do.

Nuclear fusion power

Lifting Covid restrictions will at least give households one less headache as they contend with the rising cost of living, which the Telegraph revealed will be exacerbated by smart meters that will allow energy firms to increase prices at peak periods. 

Here are the reasons why you should say no to getting a smart meter. 

Yet there could be some good energy news on the horizon. 

Britain has taken a “meaningful” and “important” step towards nuclear fusion power after breaking the world record for the amount of energy produced from the process in one go. 

Read how it has raised hopes that clean energy could soon be a reality.

Comment and analysis

Around the world: Truss warns of ‘severe’ sanctions

In an instant, the eerie streets of Pripyat, a ghost town in the Chernobyl nuclear zone, became a cauldron of smoke, gunfire and flames. Yet this was not the beginning of a real Russian invasion: soldiers were firing at wooden effigies, while just yards away dozens of journalists eagerly captured the mayhem on camera. But the highly unusual – and somewhat surreal – exercise reflects how Ukraine is preparing its forces for a worst-case scenario. James Rothwell has this dispatch on how Ukrainian soldiers are preparing for urban warfare in the ruins of Chernobyl. It comes as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned that Russia faces “massive consequences” if it invades Ukraine as she landed in Moscow today for talks. After Emmanuel Macron’s meeting with Vladimir Putin this week, and the comical memes that have followed, Guy Kelly examines what world leaders are really saying with their oversized tables.

Wednesday big-read

‘Her life could have been so very different’