The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, has insisted there is a prospect of some areas in England “de-escalating” from a higher to a lower tier of coronavirus measures before Christmas, despite scientists warning that the 16 December review will be too soon to make changes. Many Conservative MPs reacted with anger after the government announced that 99% of the population in England would be placed under the top two tightest levels of restriction – tiers 2 and 3 – when the nationwide lockdown ends next week. With suggestions that up to 70 Tory backbenchers are considering rebelling when the rules come to the House of Commons next Tuesday, Jenrick was keen to hold out the prospect of an early shift towards looser rules if compliance is high. “There will be a review point every 14 days – so on the 16 or 17 December there will be an opportunity for those parts of the country where the judgment was finely balanced to potentially de-escalate from tier 3 to tier 2, and tier 2 to tier 1,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said the message to the public and MPs was that if they “abide by the rules, work hard at it, then there’s every reason to believe that at that review point or one shortly thereafter,” their area could be moved into a lower tier. That was a message Boris Johnson was keen to press home on Thursday night, insisting: “Your tier is not your destiny.” But Jenrick’s optimism contrasted with the view of Prof John Edmunds, a member of the Sage advisory committee, who told Today he didn’t expect enough data to have emerged by 16 December. “I think that is quite an early time to be able to see what the effect has been,” he said. “For me I think that is quite an early review stage. I can’t imagine there will be huge changes at that point just simply because I don’t think we will have accumulated much data by then.” Jenrick rejected that, insisting: “We do think the review point will be meaningful.”