Boris Johnson has widened his rift with the government’s top scientists by effectively ruling out another national coronavirus lockdown.
The Prime Minister said imposing tough restrictions on the country for a second time would be a “nuclear” option which he did not want to take.
He told the Telegraph: "I can't abandon that tool any more than I would abandon a nuclear deterrent. “But it is like a nuclear deterrent, I certainly don't want to use it.
And nor do I think we will be in that position again.” His comments are at odds with the views of his own scientific advisors.