EML permanently illuminated

[Munich]

Can anyone help?

I own a 10/2005 Cooper S JCW. A couple of days ago, after a particularly hard charging drive on the Autobahn, the EML came on and is now permanently illuminated. What I would like to know is:
1. What do people think are the potential causes (please see symptoms below)?
2. Can I still drive the car with light illuminated or am I risking serious damage?

1. Symptoms: I don’t use the car very often, perhaps covering no more than 5,000 km per year, however when I do use the car I tend to cover a couple of ’00 km in one go. About 10 months ago (so ca. 4,000 km ago) I started to notice a very slight hesitation (intermittent miss or faulter) at 2,800 - 3,000 rpm while putting the engine under load. However, over the last couple of months this hesitation has got more and more pronounced to the point now, that the engine stutters badly, feels like it is cutting out (although it doesn’t) and once past 3,000rpm the car takes off again. It doesn’t seem to occur under full bore acceleration from 2nd gear – for example, the other day when I joined the Autobahn in 2nd gear on full throttle and accelerated on full throttle up to 5th gear, there were no stutter issues. However, when simply driving on part throttle (in 2nd - 6th gear) and then accelerating (using ½, ¾, or full throttle) the car suffers from the stutter between 2,800 – 3,000 rpm.

This is not the first time I have had issues with the EML. About 2 years ago I had the lambda/oxygen sensor on the exhaust replaced, however this problem would only trigger the EML after 10-15km of driving.

The oil levels are OK, the engine is not overheating and the only thing I have done changed recently is putting a set of winter tyres on the car (R87 with Dunlop SP Winter Sport M3 RFT), but I can’t see how this would trip a fault code in the ECU and as I discovered to my benefit today, the ABS still works.

2. Should I use the car?: With the Christmas holidays here, I really need to use the car over the next week or so (although not big mileage) but the local dealer doesn’t have any spare capacity for the next week or so unless I am prepared to leave the car there, which I am not. However, if the general consensus is that I could be doing some serious damage by driving the car, then I’ll have to make alternative plans.

Thank you for any information or advice you can give me.