Dominic Raab appeared on Sky News to give an update on the latest coronavirus statistics and was put on the spot by presenter Kay Burley to come clean with any updates. On Monday, Boris Johnson revealed there has been one death with the Omicron variant with Health Secretary Sajid Javid also revealing there are around 200,000 infections a day from the strain. But Mr Raab's TV appearance went at odds with the official announcements after he suggested there had been "deaths" - meaning more than one person has died - before backtracking and saying his use of plural language referred to those in hospital.

       On Monday, Mr Javid gave a startling update to the House of Commons where he said the Omicron variant was contributing to 200,000 infections a day.

       The Health Secretary stated the booster programme would be ramped out to make sure nearly every adult in the UK will be offered a jab by the end of December.

       Mr Javid also appeared on Sky News on Monday and revealed there were 10 people in hospital from the variant with Mr Raab updating that figure to 250 - a number which was disputed after the fact.

       During his Sky News appearance, Mr Raab was called out after it appeared he was also suggesting there had been more deaths.

       Ms Burley asked how many people were in hospital to which the Deputy Prime Minister replied: “I don’t know the precise figures but we do know that we’ve had the first deaths.

       “There has been an increase and above all we are concerned about the rates of transmission.

       “The positive side that we do believe - and again information on Omicron is still sketchy - for the people who get the third jab they are over 70 percent protected.”

       Mr Raab said 40 percent of adults have had their boosters and the Government were seeking to increase that before the end of the year.

       But Ms Burley called out Mr Raab and said: “You said deaths, plural… the Prime Minister told us one yesterday.”

       Mr Raab squirmed and said: “That’s my understanding, that is the latest figures… again all I can tell you is the latest.

       “In terms of plural, I was referring to we now know we have a significant number in hospital.”

       Later on in the interview, Mr Raab updated the hospitalisation figures from 10 to 250 with Ms Burley wondering if the Omicron variant was as serious as the Government were making out.

       However, Mr Raab gave conflicting figures with journalist Kate McCann saying the actual figure was still 10 as given by the Health Secretary.

       Mr Raab's later appearance on BBC Breakfast saw him put hospitalisations at "nine".

       Mr Raab also slammed the attacks from Tory backbencher Marcus Fysh who said on BBC 5Live earlier this week that Covid certification was akin to "Nazi Germany".

       Mr Fysh told BBC journalist Rachel Burden he did not want the UK to turn into a "papers please" society as he joins an ever-growing number of Tory rebels who will vote against new Covid restrictions on Tuesday.

       The Justice Secretary said it was "not a reasonable critique" but understood why people like Mr Fysh had a "strong passion" against the new rules.

       He added taking a jab or proving a negative test was not a "particularly intrusive" thing to protect everyone in a crowded environment.

       MPs are set to vote on new Covid measures on Tuesday which will see mask-wearing introduced for nearly all indoor venues with gyms and hospitality excluded.

       Covid certification will also be required to enter crowded indoor venues, such as nightclubs, theatres and even stadiums, to prove vaccination or a negative test.

       Among the Tory rebels include Steve Baker, David Davis and Marcus Fysh who have shown opposition to the "illiberal" move.

       Mr Javid told the Commons: “These are steps that no Health Secretary would wish to take unless they were absolutely necessary, but I am convinced that if we don’t prioritise the booster now the health consequences will be far more grave in the months that lie ahead...

       “While Omicron represents over 20 percent of cases in England, we’ve already seen it rise to over 44 percent in London and we expect it to become the dominant COVID-19 variant in the capital in the next 48 hours.”

       Mr Javid said there are 4,713 confirmed cases of Omicron in the UK with the UK Health Security Agency estimating the daily infection figures is around 200,000.

       The Government revealed there were 54,661 lab-confirmed COVID-19 across the UK as of Monday.