Worried voters in England's Covid-19 'hotspots' claim Boris Johnson is risking lives by reducing coronavirus restrictions - to save his own political skin.
The North East of England has suffered some of the country's highest Covid infection rates in 2022. Experts say it is an Omicron hotspot after the outbreak moved north from London.
The region was home to seven of the 10 local authorities with the highest infection rates this month.
One in 40 people (2.6 per cent) in the region tested positive in the week to January 9, the highest of any point in the pandemic.
The alarming rate of infection was highest in Middlesbrough with 3,000 cases per 100,000 people. Stockton came in third in England, Hartlepool fourth and Redcar fifth in UK Health Security Agency research.
Today education chiefs, politicians and ordinary voters united to condemn the Government's lifting of compulsory mask wearing and working from home rules.
Former steel worker Barry Heseltine, 64, of Redcar, North Yorkshire, said: "He is lifting the restrictions to save his own skin.
"He is doing this to take away from the trouble he is in. But we will wear the masks for a while yet."
His wife Joyce, 63, added: "I voted for him but he shot himself in the foot. He probably thinks it will blow over like everything else. I thought he did well at first. Not now."
Retired telephonist Patricia Blackett, 77, from Thornaby on Teesside, was wearing a mask and would continue to do so indoors at crowded venues like cinemas and theatres.
She added: "I think the Prime Minister is trying to appease us and the people in the party. He is trying to take attention away from what he has done.
"But if you have lost a loved one I don't think that you will forget that and vote for him again. He has lost all credibility. I voted Tory but I am all for Keir Starmer now.
"He is a smart lawyer, a QC. I think that I will vote for him next time, the same goes for my daughter and son."
Sixth formers Faith Lucas and Jessica Brown, both 16 and from Brotton, East Cleveland, are both planning to wear masks even after the Government lifts the restriction.
Jessica, a psychology, business and law student, said: "I think that I will keep on wearing one into the summer when it will become more difficult when it is hot.
"I think Boris is guilty of double standards with parties, he asked us to stick to the rules, but he did not do that himself."
Faith added: "You need to keep masks in enclosed spaces, especially on transport. I am not involved in politics just yet but obviously he should not have been having a party in lockdown. I know there is now a lot of pressure on him."
Mum-of-two Pauline Collins, 64, of Middlesbrough, vowed to continue mask-wearing while shopping, on buses and on trains. "I am not really sure about Boris Johnson," she said.
"I do think he should not be lifting the restrictions completely.
"You should wear them on public transport and places like shopping centres. It is different for the young, they are not as worried about it as us oldies."
Singer John Rowland, 54, a dad-of-three who worked in Spain, Greece, Holland, Germany, Italy and Gibraltar before setting up as a busker in Middlesbrough town centre 17 years ago, said there is "no saving Boris Johnson".
"Pardon the language, he has been a cluster****," he told the Mirror.
"It has gone too far for him now so it does not matter what he does. You look at other countries that have dealt with Covid so much better.
"I have friends in New Zealand, their leaders have handled it properly." He told how his wife Hayley, 37, and children Grace, 16, Alex,13, and eight-year-old Noah all went down with Covid before Christmas.
He added: "My wife works in a school and got the Delta strain 18 months ago and she was really ill, and then we all got what was probably the Omicron variant.
"I was not at death's door, it was like a bad flu virus. But I would not wish it on anybody, we have seen so many people lose loved ones."
Middlesbrough Labour MP Andy McDonald said his office was inundated with voters complaining about Boris Johnson. They are expressing their sheer anger at him.
"Welsh leader Mark Drayford summed it up," he said. "He is being guided by the data and public health priorities, we are being driven by politics.
"I would be guided by the professionals who think we should maintain our guard for a little longer. On masks, people will make their own minds up and I support them fully on that."
Almost 75 per cent of North East schools reported staff levels of below 90 per cent this week. At a quarter of them, it was less than 80 per cent. Only one in ten schools had student attendance levels of more than 90 per cent.
Chris Zarraga, director of campaign group Schools North East, said: "Schools are still facing real challenges in getting staff cover, increasing staff workload and stress.
"There are serious concerns for schools, with local pictures often radically different from the national picture. The Government must support headteachers to put in place those measures necessary for their own school’s context."
Andy Byers, headteacher at Framwellgate School, Durham, has asked students to keep wearing masks. More than 60 pupils and 10 members of his staff are isolating, with a small number "quite poorly".
In Stockton-on-Tees, pop up vaccination clinics are in place. Sarah Bowman-Abouna, their Director of Public Health, said: “We know uptake across Teesside is lower than other parts of the country.
"We are tackling this by making it as easy as possible for people to come to a walk-in centre. We want to discourage this myth that the Omicron variant is less serious than other variants.
"The truth is we can’t guarantee that infection will cause less serious illness so it’s vital we vaccinate as many people as possible.”
