Professor Sir Mark Walport, a member of the Government‘s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said it would be difficult to keep the new, faster-spreading strain of the virus under control without ‚much tighter‘ social-distancing measures.

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, the former chief scientific adviser said: ‚It‘s clear that this variant is transmitting more readily – it‘s transmitting more readily in younger age groups as well.