Boris Johnson has signalled lockdown measures could be eased as early as next week.

The prime minister said a ‘phase two’ plan for tackling coronavirus might come into force on Monday, the day after he lays out an exit strategy from current restrictions. The PM is expected to set out his ‘roadmap’ for easing the measures in an address to the nation on Sunday.

‘We’ll want if we possibly can to get going with some of these measures on Monday’ he told MPs during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs).

‘I think it would be a good thing if people had an idea of what’s coming the following day.’

Mr Johnson did not say which restrictions will be relaxed. Unconfirmed reports have suggested Brits could be asked to go back to work by the end of the month and the two-metre social rule could be scrapped.

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MPs questioned why he is not going straight to the Commons to tell them first.

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Announcing the exit plan on Sunday and implementing it on Monday means MPs may not be given the chance to scrutinise the changes.

Asked why he was breaking with the usual rules, the PM said: ‘The reason for that is very simple, that we have to be sure the the data is going to support our ability to do this.

‘That data is coming in continuously over the next few days. We want if we possibly can to get going with some of these measures on Monday.’

The UK has been in lockdown for seven weeks, with the number of daily deaths in hospitals only just starting to plateau. More than 29,000 people have died of Covid-19, the highest toll in Europe.

Ministers and scientific advisers have said we are passed the peak and that a new strategy of ‘test, track and trace’ is being rolled out to prevent a second wave. During today’s PMQs, Mr Johnson said he has set a new target of testing 200,000 people a day for coronavirus by the end of the month.

He said the new goal is an ‘ambition’ after the government was widely criticised for its first goal of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.

Health secretary Matt Hancock set the first target on April 2 and told the Government’s daily briefing last week that testing figures had hit 122,347 on April 30. He was later accused of ‘bending the rules’ in order to come to that figure, as 27,497 of those counted were home tests and 12,872 were sent out to satellite sites, suggesting just 81,978 of the tests were actually completed and processed.

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