Sajid Javid implies new restrictions will be abandoned if Omicron no more dangerous than Delta – as it happened

• 6.12pm GMT18:12 Early evening summary
• 4.18pm GMT16:18 Javid claims many European countries wish they had followed England in abandoning most Covid rules in summer
• 3.51pm GMT15:51 Javid implies new restrictions will be abandoned if Omicron turns out to be no more dangerous than Delta
• 3.43pm GMT15:43 Javid accepts recommendations on expanding booster programme
• 3.39pm GMT15:39 Javid tells MPs they will get vote on new Covid restrictions announced at weekend
• 3.37pm GMT15:37 MPs to debate Boris Johnson's honesty tomorrow after SNP tables censure motion against him
• 3.30pm GMT15:30 Two more Omicron cases found in England, UKHSA says

• The UK’s minimum gap for Covid booster jabs will be halved from six months to three, after the government accepted advice from its vaccines watchdog to speed up the programme to limit the spread of the Omicron variant. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said in a statement the new policy would “accelerate the deployment of Covid-19 vaccines before the peak of any impending Omicron wave”. In a statement to MPs, Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said that he was accepting the JCVI proposal. But he also told MPs “if it emerges that this variant is no more dangerous than the Delta variant, then we won’t keep measures in place for a day longer than is necessary”. MPs vote on the new restrictions announced for England in response to the Omicron threat - compulsory mask wearing in shops and on public transport, isolation for close contacts of Omicron cases , and PCR tests for new arrivals - after a three-hour debate tomorrow.

• Scientific advisers are bracing themselves for hundreds of UK cases of the Omicron Covid variant to be confirmed in the next week or so, the Guardian has learned.

• Downing Street has rejected a call from the Scottish and Welsh goverments for all arrivals in the UK to be made to spend eight days in isolation to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant. (See 11.06am, 11.46am and 1.52pm.)

• Keir Starmer has sparked a row in the Labour party by launching a shadow cabinet reshuffle as his deputy was giving a major speech attacking “corruption” by the government.

• MPs should face a complete ban on working as paid consultants and ministers should be more open about any potential conflicts of interest, parliament’s internal standards watchdog has proposed among a series of new anti-sleaze rules.

• Senior French ministers have accused the UK of operating a labour market akin to slavery and called on London to open safe routes for migrants, as the two governments continued to deflect blame for last week’s drownings in the Channel.

We have not heard much about the Labour reshuffle yet, but here are two snippets from two political editors.

From my colleague Heather Stewart

From the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar