Boris Johnson warns against relaxing coronavirus lockdown prematurely over fears of ‘second wave of infections’

Boris Johnson has urged caution over relaxing the UK-wide coronavirus lockdown prematurely due to fears of a second damaging wave of infections.

The prime minister, who is still recuperating from Covid-19 at his countryside Chequers residence, made the intervention in a meeting with senior aides on Friday.

Mr Johnson was joined by the foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who has been deputising at No 10 in the prime minister’s absence, and his influential adviser Dominic Cummings.

During the meeting, the prime minister, who is receiving “daily updates” from ministers, raised his concerns about a “second peak” if the government lifts restrictions too soon – potentially inflicting even greater damage on the economy and public health.

“The idea we will be rushing to lift measures is a non-starter,” a government source told The Times. “If the transmission rate rises significantly we will have to do a harder lockdown again.”

On Monday, a No 10 spokesperson added: “The big concern is a second peak. That is what ultimately will do the most damage to health and the most damage to the economy. If you move too quickly then the virus could begin to spread exponentially again. The public will expect us to do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus and protect lives.”

It comes amid tensions within the government over when to ease the severe restrictions imposed by Mr Johnson four weeks ago to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove rejected briefings at the weekend that the government could adopt a three-stage “traffic light” approach to easing the lockdown, which would start with some non-essential shops reopening their doors at the beginning of May.

Opposition parties have also called on ministers to set out a strategy for deciding how and when to lift the lockdown.

Speaking to BBC Radio’s Radio 4 Today programme, Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, said: “Throughout all of this we’ve been driven by the facts and the scientific evidence.

“When we introduced these so-called lockdown measures, we said we’d review them on a three-week basis. We set out the sort of things we would look to if we were able to ease those lockdown conditions.”

Pressed on whether it was the prime minister’s preference to be “cautious” and not lift the lockdown due to fears of a second peak of the virus, he added: “What the prime minister has said consistently through this is that we will base our actions on the facts and the clinical evidence.

“The first step is to understand whether it would be safe to end the current restrictions. Then based on the evidence, we will take appropriate measures.

“The prime minister said he expected this peak to last around three months – what’s happened is kind of consistent with that. But we will take the appropriate measures based on the facts and the evidence and that has not changed.”