New Year’s Eve Trafalgar Square celebrations will not take place

London’s New Year’s Eve celebration event in Trafalgar Square will no longer be going ahead in the interest of public safety, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced.

The event, which was set to be open to around 6,500 key workers and members of the public, will not take place due to the surge of cases of the Omicron variant in the capital.

A live broadcast celebrating the city and highlighting the most defining moments of 2021 will still be the centrepiece of London’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. The broadcast 'will use state of the art technology to showcase London to the rest of the world and the unique broadcast spectacular will tell the story of the most poignant moments of the last year and look ahead to the best of the new year'.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “With infections of COVID-19 at record levels across our city and the UK, I’m determined to work closely with partners in our city to do everything we possibly can to slow the spread of the new variant and ensure our NHS services are not overwhelmed this winter.

“This means that we will no longer be hosting a celebration event for 6,500 people on Trafalgar Square this New Year’s Eve. This will be very disappointing for many Londoners, but we must take the right steps to reduce the spread of the virus. I’m proud that we will still have an incredible broadcast spectacular to watch on our screens, which will showcase our great city to the rest of the world.

“Our world-renowned retail, hospitality, tourism, nightlife and cultural businesses are already suffering from the impact of the latest wave of COVID cases during what is usually their busiest time of the year. I continue to urge the Chancellor to step up with a package of support to help businesses through this difficult time and to ensure they will be able to survive and help drive our economy forward again next year.”