Big fat weddings are back on!

The Prime Minister is set to confirm that big weddings will be permitted to take place from June 21, it emerged today.

Newlyweds in England are currently only able to share their big day with up to 30 guests following the latest relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions on May 17.

But Boris Johnson yesterday hinted that the June 21 ‘freedom day’ will go ahead as planned, saying he does not see ‘anything’ in Covid data that would prevent his roadmap from going ahead.

The long-awaited fourth step will see attendance restrictions scrapped at weddings and other large-scale events, which will go ahead as planned from June 21.    

Downing Street insiders told the Daily Telegraph they were confident large numbers would be permitted to attend weddings from next month.

It comes after the success of several large-scale pilot events, which saw only a handful of people test positive for Covid out of 58,000 attendees. 

A source said: ‘There’s increasing confidence that vaccines are working against all variants and the data doesn’t seem to be changing too drastically in terms of case numbers and hospitalisations. 

‘As long as there are no significant changes over the next few days, there is cautious optimism.’ 

Mr Johnson yesterday said details for the final relaxation of rules will be unveiled by the end of the month – earlier than had been feared after the Indian strain started to fuel cases in the UK.  

The Prime Minister is expected provide an update into the potential relaxation of social distancing rules, including the ‘one metre plus’ and face mask regulations. 

Speaking in Portsmouth, he said: ‘I am still seeing nothing in the data that leads me to think that we’re going to have to deviate from the road map – obviously we must remain cautious but I’m seeing nothing that makes me think we have to deviate.

‘But on June 21 and vaccine certification – or Covid status certification I should say – people should bear in mind that I don’t see any prospect of certificates to go into pubs or anything else.’

Pressed on whether the public will continue to be asked to wear masks, Mr Johnson replied: ‘We will let people know as much as we possibly can by the end of the month about weddings, for instance.

‘All the details we’ll try and let people know by the end of the month about exactly where we think we’ll be on June 21, Step 4.’

It comes as there were more conflicting signals about the Indian variant on Friday as Government experts estimated England’s Covid outbreak may be on the rise – despite separate data suggesting the nation’s outbreak is flat.

No10’s top scientists estimated the R rate — which measures the spread of the virus — is now between 0.9 and 1.1, up from the lower estimate of 0.8 last week. 

Random swabbing by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found almost 50,000 people were infected with the virus on any day last week, or the equivalent of one in every 1,110 people. 

The estimate is up by 20 per cent on the previous seven-day spell.

The national body, whose estimates are watched closely by ministers, warned it was starting to see a ‘potential increase’. 

But its head of analytics for the Covid infection survey Sarah Crofts said ‘rates remain low and it is too soon to say if this is the start of a trend’.

The figures came after two separate datasets on Thursday suggested the opposite trend, allaying fears the Indian variant was spiralling out of control.

Public Health England’s weekly surveillance report found coronavirus cases had dropped in every region except the North West and in every age group except 5 to 9-year-olds. 

Covid cases are only surging in three of 23 hotspots for the Indian variant — Bolton, Blackburn and Bedford — but are remaining flat in others and even falling in two — Sefton and South Northamptonshire. 

And separate analysis from King’s College London found 2,270 Brits were developing Covid symptoms last week, barely a change from the previous seven-day spell.

But scientific advisers yesterday warned the latest coronavirus mutation may already be the dominant Covid strain in the UK after growing ‘exponentially’ since March. 

Documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies said the highly infectious B.1.617.2 strain likely made up the ‘majority’ of the UK’s infections by mid-May.

The SPI-M subgroup modelled the variant’s spread on May 12 based on how rapidly it spiralled last month, and forecast that it would account for more than 50 per cent of cases by the middle of the month. 

Its finding suggests the official number of cases reported by Public Health England is an underestimate and says the variant is quickly replacing the current dominant Kent version, which triggered the second wave.

In a separate paper published yesterday, but submitted to ministers on May 11, SAGE warned cases of the Indian variant in Bolton, Bedford and Sefton were ‘increasing apparently exponentially’. 

The group called for ‘aggressive use of asymptomatic testing, contact tracing and isolation’ in hotspots and hinted at extending lockdown rules, warning the Government against waiting for more evidence before acting. 

No10 has already deployed surge testing in a handful of areas where the variant is spreading quickest, including Bolton and Blackburn.

Highlighting SAGE’s fear about the strain, experts wrote: ‘In the face of uncertain evidence the risk of overreacting seems small compared to the potential benefit of delaying a third wave until more people are vaccinated.’ 

Expert advisers told the Government they believed the current reproduction ‘R’ rate of the Indian variant – how many people on average each patient infects – is around 1.64. They did not give an estimated R for the Kent strain. 

They said the new strain appears to be spreading 40 per cent faster than the Kent version but they could not ‘conclude with any certainty’ cannot be certain it is biologically more transmissible.

The Joint Universities Pandemic and Epidemiological Research Group (Juniper) said it was still possible its increased infectivity could be down to superspreader events and socioeconomic factors.

For example a lot of the spread occurring in Bolton is among the town’s Indian population who are statistically more likely to live in high density housing and live with multiple relatives. 

It comes as Mr Johnson told Conservative MPs that the ‘one-metre plus’ rule for social distancing is still set to be scrapped in June. 

The Prime Minister said eliminating the measure was the ‘single biggest difference’ the government could bring about in order to get Britain’s pubs back into action, and he was eager for the rule to be scrapped by June 21, The Times reports.  

As long as the rule is in force, pubs, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and other hospitality businesses remain financially unviable, having to legally keep customers separated while using their premises, industry leaders have warned.   

Many have had to keep their doors closed throughout the coronavirus crisis.  

More than 37million people have now received one vaccine injection — the equivalent of more than 70 per cent of all adults — and 21.2million are fully inoculated. 

But the rise of the Indian Covid variant had sparked concerns that plans to end social distancing measures were in jeopardy, but on Wednesday Mr Johnson told the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs he was confident about abolishing the one-metre plus rule next month. 

He said: ‘We are hopeful we can do that at the end of the road map.’ But Mr Johnson added that it depends on figures ‘continuing in the right direction’.  

One MP who was at the 1922 meeting said: ‘He seemed very upbeat about removing the one-metre-plus rule next month.

‘He told us he fully realises that it is the biggest difference the government can make to letting pubs serve customers in reasonably normal conditions and that means getting rid of any capacity restrictions.’