MILLIONS of people will leave work today for Christmas breaks starting earlier and lasting longer than ever.

The opportunity to take a 16-day holiday will see the closure of many offices in the City, industry and the public sector until the new year.

However, weather forecasters gave warning of blizzards hitting much of the country this weekend.

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said many of its 185,000 members were coming under increasing pressure from employees to give them a two-week Christmas holiday on top of the mandatory four weeks’ paid leave. “Employers under pressure are kind and generous and give those days off but it’s better for the economy if we formalise those days and have a debate.”

Many of the 18 million motorists rushing off on holiday may have a dismal start. Seven hundred gritters and snow ploughs are on standby to tackle drifting snow in an unbeatable recipe for traffic chaos.

Motoring organisations predicted that already congested highways would bear 25 per cent more traffic today as schools shut and people began journeys early to beat gales and snowdrifts forecast for Sunday.

The prospect is too dismal for a record 1.8 million holidaymakers, who will fly to somewhere sunnier over Christmas according to the Association of British Travel Agents.

The Met Office issued a series of severe weather warnings for much of eastern England and Scotland, where gales are forecast to push snow showers into deep drifts by the end of the weekend.

The Highways Agency geared up to beat the drifting snow after being criticised by the National Audit Office for failing to grit roads quickly enough when the M11 became snowbound in in January, trapping hundreds of motorists overnight in a 17-mile tailback.

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