The claim by Ms Dorries, who has recovered from coronavirus, left social media users “alarmed” as they pondered the prospect of having to remain in isolation until the end of 2021. Piers Morgan pointed out her words represented an “astonishing break from other Government statements”, which she refuted. The Conservative MP went on to insist she did not necessarily mean Britons would remain under lockdown until a vaccine was found but that people would have to “adapt” to the reality that things will be different for the foreseeable future.

She tweeted: “Journalists should stop asking about an ‘exit strategy.’

“There is only one way we can ‘exit’ full lockdown and that is when we have a vaccine.

“Until then, we need to find ways we can adapt society and strike a balance between the health of the nation and our economy.”

She went on to back up her point by saying “there is more than one lockdown” and suggested moving from a full lockdown to a relaxation strategy could be used by the Government to get things up and running again.

After Sky News’ Kay Burley said Ms Dorries “misspoke” on the lockdown issue, the Tory MP stood her ground.

She replied: “I say it as it is. I speak in politics as I do in life.

“If I need to apologise, I won’t hesitate.

“Best thing here is for me to refer back to this tweet, at the right point down the line. I really did not misspeak.”

Ms Dorries said it would be better for people to focus on a relaxing of the lockdown rather than “demanding an ‘exit strategy’”.

On Thursday the Government is expected to extend the restrictions on public movement for a further three weeks.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock this morning warned it will take time for life to return to normal and insisted the number of daily deaths in Britain remains “far too high” for a plan to lift the restrictions to be set out.

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Referring to Ms Dorries’ tweets, he said her use of the word “full” when referring to the lockdown was key.

He backed her up, saying he thought the “point that Nadine was making is that we will not be returning to some… just straight back exactly how things were before. This will take time.”

He told Sky News: “Well I think what Nadine was saying is the idea that we’ll immediately… we’ll just switch off all of the measures and return to some kind of… to things exactly as they were – that is not likely in the short-term.”

His comments come as top scientist Professor Neil Ferguson questioned whether the Government had done enough work to implement a plan to ease the lockdown

Prof Ferguson, one of the leading epidemiologists advising Number 10, said: “I think there’s a lot of discussions.

“I would like to see action accelerated.

“We need to put in place an infrastructure, a command and control structure, a novel organisation for this.”

Prof Ferguson of Imperial College London is the scientist believed to have been responsible for changing the Government’s mind on pursuing a herd immunity strategy when it came to tackling the coronavirus epidemic.

Thursday’s Cabinet meeting to agree to prolong social distancing measures comes amid signs the epidemic in the UK is beginning to peak.

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