THE Cabinet Office has been forced to deny accusations that experts who meet with civil servants are now being politically vetted, as unions and scientists issued fresh warnings over the spread of Covid-19’s omicron variant.

According to a report published in the Telegraph last Saturday, an “official-sensitive” memo has been circulated in Whitehall, warning that invitations to internal events should not be issued to those who have “spoken against key government policies.”

The Cabinet Office said that “an increased due diligence process for guest speakers” had recently been adopted “in line with cross-government best practice,” and that the policy was completely separate to official government meetings in which ministers and departments seek advice on policy.

But the Good Law Project’s Jolyon Maugham said in a Twitter post: “What this note seems [to] say is, if you have criticised government policy, you can’t be invited to speak to civil servants.”

He added: “It’s the conduct of a government fearful of challenge that responds to it by trying to silence the speaker rather than meeting the challenge, and that wields the power of state patronage to punish those who speak against the government.”

The row continued as Downing Street clashed with the head of the UK Health Security Agency, Dr Jenny Harries, for urging people not to socialise if they do not need to in the run-up to Christmas.

The health agency confirmed that recorded cases of the omicron variant had risen to eight in England, while nine further cases were recorded in Scotland, bringing the overall British total to 22.

Dr Harries said that people could do their bit to slow its spread by reducing the number of social contacts they have, as she urged people to have their booster jabs.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson later said that there was no need to “change the overall guidance about how people should be living their lives.”

Official government advice, including the new measures on mask-wearing that came into place today, has been more limited.

But Paddy Lillis, general secretary of retail union Usdaw, has said that workers cannot be expected to enforce the wearing of masks due to the threat of abuse.

He said that the requirement to wear face masks should not have been removed for shops and on public transport in the first place, warning that repeated changes “create confusion, reduce compliance and can lead to conflict.”