Boris Johnson has spoken of the “frustration and hardship” brought about by the pandemic, but vowed that the Government will “build back better” to solve the UK’s “chronic underlying problems”.
Addressing the Tory Party conference, Mr Johnson, who faces a Tory revolt over some of the curbs on freedoms that have been introduced, also said that ministers had been “forced into erosions of liberty we deeply regret” but insisted there is “no reasonable alternative” to “lockdown enforcement and bailouts”.
It came as London saw surge in coronavirus cases, with more than 1,000 new infections being reported every day , official figures show. The capital was declared an area of Covid-19 concern on September 25 when there were just over 600 new cases a day.
Meanwhile, Sheffield, Leeds and Oxford are said to be at risk of local lockdown restrictions after a Government data blunder saw thousands of coronavirus cases go unreported. An outdated Excel spreadsheet was blamed for the glitch , which left up to 16,000 cases unreported.