People over the age of 70 were advised to continue self-isolating by Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday while announcing Britons can have unlimited exercise outside. He said vulnerable people must take particular care to minimise contact with those outside their household. His comments sparked a furious outburst by former Pensions Minister Baroness Ros Altmann who argued against the age discrimination and said it is up to the health of the individual.

Speaking to talkRADIO, Ms Altmann said: “I am absolutely delighted there are no special restrictions for the over-70s or any other older age group.

“Many of them are fit and healthy. If they have medical conditions they’re not going to rushing out anyway.

“They’re sensible. They know what they need to protect themselves and the Government, in my view, agree with the age discrimination those kinds of rules would have applied.

“I think there is no magic age in which people should be told, ‘sorry you can’t go out’.

“A country where we value our freedom and liberty to leave our home and value standards that mean everybody has the same rights to our freedom unless they’ve done something wrong.

“If you have done something wrong and society says ‘you can’t go out’ that’s a very different thing.

“I’m delighted the Government listened to the clamour from healthy people who are older and saying ‘we can’t tolerate this kind of restriction’.”

Mr Johnson laid out a roadmap to easing the lockdown in a 50-page document on Monday which detailed the measures depending on the number of cases in the UK.

Mr Johnson has played down suggestions there could be a “sudden big flood” of people heading back to work as he set out the Government’s “road map” for easing the coronavirus lockdown.

The Prime Minister said the measures – including encouraging those in England who were unable to work from home to return to their jobs – were “baby steps” as the spread of the virus eased.

However, the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pointedly refused to follow the lead of the Government at Westminster in dropping the “stay home” message in favour of “stay alert”.

Speaking at the daily No 10 press briefing, Mr Johnson acknowledged ministers were putting forward a more nuanced message, but said he believed the public would use their “common sense” as they entered the next phase.

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“Everybody understood roughly what to do in the first phase and it’s by applying common sense that I think we will be successful in this second phase as well,” he said.

He added: “I don’t think any of us expect that tomorrow or for the rest of this week there is going to be a sudden big flood of people back to work.

“I think a lot of people will now start to think whether they fall into that category, whether they could think about going back to work.

“We are taking baby steps. We think that is the right way to do it. We have some leeway now.”

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