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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to announce a tough new national lockdown which will include the closure of all schools, it has been claimed.

The PM will confirm the new lockdown in a TV address to the nation at 8pm on Monday, January 4, ITV reports.

Downing Street has already confirmed that during the broadcast he will outline the steps to tackle the rise in coronavirus cases, with Parliament set to be recalled to sit on Wednesday.

A No10 spokesman said: "The spread of the new variant of Covid-19 has led to rapidly escalating case numbers across the country.

"The Prime Minister is clear that further steps must now be taken to arrest this rise and to protect the NHS and save lives.

"He will set those out this evening."

It comes after education unions urged the Government to "pause" a return to the classroom until the safety of staff and pupils can be guaranteed.

In a joint statement, the GMB, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU, Unison and Unite unions said there is a "serious risk" of staff falling ill while the rate of infection is so high.

"Bringing all pupils back into classrooms while the rate of infection is so high is exposing education sector workers to serious risk of ill-health and could fuel the pandemic," the unions said.

But Mr Johnson – who has made keeping schools open a top priority – said "the risk to kids is very, very small" and "the risk to teachers is no greater than it is to anyone else".

Earlier on Monday Scotland's First Minister announced a national lockdown for the rest of January with a legal requirement to stay at home and schools closed to most pupils until February.

Setting out the measures to come into force from Tuesday, the First Minister told MSPs in Holyrood: "It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year."

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• Boris Johnson
• Lockdown
• Coronavirus

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