There are reports this afternoon, that a nationwide ban on households mixing, could be coming very soon.

Professor Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett show: “I think that may well be coming very soon.”

“I would think if we wait two or three weeks, it will be too late. It ought to be instituted sooner rather than later.”

People across Scotland and Northern Ireland are already banned from mixing with other households and in Wales a maximum of six people are allowed to meet indoors, but they must be part of a single extended household.