Boris Johnson has indicated some doubt over the plan for lockdown easing due to a new variant of coronavirus first identified in India.

Asked if people would be able to stop wearing masks and social distancing, Mr Johnson said more announcements will be made before the end of the month.

A return to normality would depend on the variant remaining under control, he said.

He told reporters: ‘I think we have to wait a little bit longer to see how the data is looking but I am cautiously optimistic about that and provided this Indian variant doesn’t take off in the way some people fear, I think certainly things could get back much, much closer to normality.’

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Asked if local lockdowns were possible, he said: ‘There are a range of things we could do, we want to make sure we grip it.

‘Obviously there’s surge testing, there’s surge tracing.’

He added: ‘If we have to do other things, then of course the public would want us to rule nothing out. We have always been clear we would be led by the data.

‘At the moment, I can see nothing that dissuades me from thinking we will be able to go ahead on Monday and indeed on June 21, everywhere, but there may be things we have to do locally and we will not hesitate to do them if that is the advice we get.’

Speaking at a primary school in Ferryhill, County Durham, the PM said the Indian variant circulating in the UK ‘is a variant of concern, we are anxious about it’.

He went on: ‘At the moment there is a very wide range of scientific opinion about what could happen.

‘We want to make sure we take all the prudential, cautious steps now that we could take, so there are meetings going on today to consider exactly what we need to do.

More follows.

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