Matt Hancock discusses coronavirus risk to those in their 60s

Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson plunged England into its third national lockdown in a bid to curb the staggering number of daily infections. But ministers are believed to be discussing harsher restrictions this week.

Now, the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg has issued a dire warning about potential restrictions.

She said: “In extremis, though there are measures that could be taken – in theory, the Government do not want to do any of this, but in practice, there are other potential steps.

“Building sites could be made to lock their gates.

“Factories, where machines are still whirring because they are operating under Covid guidelines, could be made to pause.”

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Ms Kuenssberg also warned England, Scotland and Northern Ireland could follow Wales in banning people from seeing anyone they do not live with outdoors.

She continued: “Playgrounds, laundrettes and chiropractors, could, along with many others on the of premises allowed to stay open, have to shut up shop after all.

“But while ministers have talked about squeezing the advice for takeaways to try to prevent big queues gathering at popular places, encouraged the supermarkets to make sure they are doing as much as they can to be safe, and even discussed the prospect of asking for masks to be worn outdoors, there is no expectation, at least at the start of the week, that a more extensive clampdown is coming from Westminster.”

Ms Kuenssberg suggested the Prime Minister only imposed the third lockdown when the “evidence put forward by the Government’s top medics got worse, and worse and worse”.

New tighter measures proposed by ministers would bring the country in line with the measures first introduced back in March – although even then masks were not mandatory.

A Government source said allowing two people from different households to meet for exercise was “being used as an excuse for people to go for a coffee in the park with their friends”.

They told the Telegraph newspaper: “It may be we tighten up on things like that.”

Over the weekend, ministers held an emergency coronavirus meeting to discuss whether the current rules were working.

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They also discussed whether tougher restrictions were needed.

Some of the measures could include curfews, banning support bubbles and mandatory masks.

The people could also be limited to exercising to just one hour a day and nurseries could be closed.

While many speculated the Government was planning to scrap support bubbles, Health Secretary Matt Hancock ruled out banning the “very important” lifeline.

He said during a televised briefing last night: “I can rule out removing the bubbles that we have in place.

“The childcare bubbles, the support bubbles are very important and we’re going to keep them.

“I know how important they are to people and they’re an important part of the system that we’ve got to support people whilst also having these tough measures that are necessary.

“The bubbles are there for individual specific people.

“If you bubble with someone, that is the person you bubble with, you can’t keep moving bubbles, it’s very important.”

Stronger enforcement of coronavirus rules is “necessary”, Matt Hancock said, as he praised police for stepping up their efforts.

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