Top MPs and medics clash over lockdown exit plan

MINISTERS are looking at how lockdown restrictions could be eased to allow more people back to work within weeks.

Rules could be relaxed so more of the population, such as tradesmen, can return to their jobs as long as social distancing is respected.

A special unit has been established in Downing Street to devise an exit strategy. Ministers want to lift restrictions gradually to limit the damage to the economy. But they faced warnings yesterday from medical officials that it was too early.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said the measures would be relaxed only if the ‘excess capacity’ in NHS intensive care units can be maintained.

He told the BBC: ‘If we can do that then we can look in the weeks to come to begin to very carefully... lift some of those measures.

‘But an exit strategy that’s sustainable will also have to be accompanied by much greater testing and tracing than we are able to do today.’

Government sources said a cross-departmental unit was established in Downing Street last month to examine ways of ending the lockdown.

However, sources played down the prospect of any imminent easing of restrictions.

One said: ‘The minute you start talking about exit strategies, there is a risk that people will stop following the social distancing guidance so closely.’

At a press conference in Downing Street last night, England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said it would be a mistake to discuss the next phase of managing the pandemic until the peak in infections has been reached.

And Professor Dame Angela McLean, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, said the lockdown needed to remain until its impact could be reviewed.

Tory MP Robert Halfon, who chairs the education select committee, said yesterday he believed there would be staged re-openings of schools and restaurants when the pandemic begins to ease.

Ministers have urged councils not to shut parks, but warned the public they face fines if they use them to sunbathe.

Mr Jenrick asked local authorities to lock parks only as a last resort if they could not ensure social distancing could be maintained.

Downing Street warned that sunbathing was banned, but it was up to police to use ‘discretion’ in enforcing the rules. Officers have the power to impose £30 on-the-spot fines.