Boris Johnson is set to introduce a flurry of new policies under “Operation Red Meat” designed to deflect criticism as the Prime Minister continues to face anger over “partygate” allegations.

Fury over the gatherings was compounded when it emerged that two events were held in No 10 the day before the Queen had to sit alone at the funeral of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, last year.

The Prime Minister had already apologised for personally attending a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020, during the first coronavirus lockdown.

Six Tory MPs have publicly called for Mr Johnson to go, while many others are believed to have privately agitated for a vote of no confidence in him as Tory leader.

But, anticipating the potential flashpoint of senior civil servant Sue Gray delivering the result of her inquiry into the partying allegations, the Government has launched a fightback on multiple fronts.

Covid Plan B restrictions set to be axed in England

Alongside threats to scrap the BBC TV licence fee, tougher action on Channel crossings and tackling the NHS backlog, Mr Johnson is reportedly preparing to end Covid restrictions.

Mr Johnson seems set to end England’s Plan B measures, including mask-wearing and work-from-home guidance, on their current expiry date of January 26.

Not only would this be warmly welcomed by the lockdown-sceptic MPs on the Conservative backbenches, it would also prevent another massive rebellion if he tried to renew them.

Vaccine passports are also set to be scrapped next week under new plans.

Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden signalled over the weekend that the “signs are encouraging” for lifting the remaining restrictions.

Nadhim Zahawi shared an update on plan B rules being lifted when speaking to the media on Monday morning.

He said: "I'm confident that when we review this on January 26 then we'll be in a much better place to lift some of these restrictions.

"I think we are witnessing the transition of this virus from pandemic to endemic.

"I hope we'll be one of the first major economies to demonstrate to the world how you transition this from pandemic to endemic."

He added: "If you look at infection rates, they remain high, hospitalisations is still high, touching 20,000 people in hospital, but it feels like they're plateauing.

"The good news is the number of people in ICU has been coming down, certainly in London, which was the epicentre, the level of staff absence in education has remained pretty flat - it was 8% before Christmas, it's at about 8.5% at the moment."