By PM says there’s nothing ‘in the data’ to suggest further restrictions can’t be eased from 21 June
Boris Johnson has said he doesn’t “see anything currently in the data” to divert from the 21 June target for the next stage of exiting lockdown but “we may need to wait” for more data.
The prime minister told reporters: “As I have said many times I don’t see anything currently in the data to suggest that we have to deviate from the road map.
“But we may need to wait.
“Don’t forget the important point about the intervals between the steps of the road map, we put that five weeks between those steps to give us time to see what effect the unlockings are having.”
It comes as Matt Hancock has said it is too early to say whether the government can go ahead with step four of its roadmap out of lockdown.
The health secretary has said the Indian variant is spreading across the country.
Matt Hancock, Parliament
The prime minster was asked if Matt Hancock “was the right person to be doing the job” and if he “had confidence in Matt Hancock”.
Mr Johnson ignored the questions as he defended the government’s decisions in relation to care homes.
He said: “Of course what happened in care homes was tragic, but we did everything we could to protect the NHS and to minimise transmission with the knowledge that we had.
“One thing that we did not know at the beginning of the pandemic… was quite the way the virus could be transmitted asymptomatically, and that was one of the reasons that we had some of the problems that we saw in care homes.”
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