I appeared on Politics Live following Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday. We discussed the Government’s Christmas guidance, and changes to the tier system.

The news of a vaccine is of course wonderful. However, we need practical solutions to help our infection rates go down in the mean time. Firstly, Directors of Public Health must have control of contact tracing. Local systems have a much higher contact rate than the national system, and Ministers did not learn from their mistakes earlier this year on this.

We also need to ensure people can afford to self-isolate when they’ve been in contact with someone with coronavirus. Sick pay does not go far enough for many, especially in the build-up to Christmas, and as a result people are going into work when they should be at home. We know that when care home workers were paid full sick pay, infection rates in care homes went down.

I hope that we are able to reunite with family and friends in 2021. Until then, we must follow scientific advice and stop the spread of this virus as best as possible.