Professor Neil Ferguson, who serves as a senior adviser to the Government on the coronavirus pandemic, leaked stunning details of the plan to end the UK lockdown. He shocked the BBC’s Nick Robinson when he revealed a plan was being drawn up by No10 on how to smoothly end the lockdown. This contrasts with Dominic Raab’s remarks yesterday as he deputised for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where he hinted ministers are avoiding setting out any exit strategy. 

Professor Ferguson said concerns over how to come out of the nationwide lockdown was the “number one priority” for Downing Street, who were fixated on this “every waking minute”.

He told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme that any loosening of the lockdown would be staged and cover areas where outbreaks had passed their peaks. 

The scientist from Imperial College London revealed that the lockdown would be eased with a plan which would likely “be targeted by age, by geography”.

He explained: “I could conceive of circumstances in which some of the restrictions are lifted sooner and some are lifted later.”

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Professor Ferguson added: “Without doubt measures will be targeted, probably by age, by geography, and we will need to introduce – in my view – much larger levels of testing at a community level to really be able to isolate cases and more effectively identify where transmission has happened.” 

The scientist said planning on when and how lockdown can be ease was being done “both in the scientific community and in government itself – it is the number one topic and priority, every waking minute”.

The leading epidemiologist went on to claim that the UK may not know whether restrictions have worked “for several more weeks”. 

Professor Ferguson told the BBC that there was “preliminary evidence” that the public was obeying rules better than many in Downing Street had anticipated.

He continued: “But we have still got to see that reflected in case numbers coming down. 

“Only when we can see the case numbers come down and how quickly transmissions are being reduced can we really conclude anything about what happens next and when these measures can be relaxed.

“All my experience dealing with any sort of infectious disease suggests once you start getting things under control, that is the time you absolutely need to continue with all your measures so you can bring the disease right down, essentially to crack it across the country.”

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There are claims that Boris Johnson himself was alarmed at the impact of the lockdown, since the Prime Minister had not expected the UK to follow the measures so quickly.

Professor Paul Cosford of Public Health England (PHE) later told the BBC that it was “not unreasonable” to expect the lockdown to continue for several weeks.

Boris Johnson’s father Stanley admitted today that the Prime Minister may not return to the top job for some weeks yet. 

At the daily press conference on Thursday, Dominic Raab urged the public to not “take their eye off the ball”.

He said: “We will make the right decisions at the right moment and we will be guided by the science.” 

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