Michael Gove 'confident' UK won't need another lockdown

Michael Gove on Kay Burley at Breakfast - Credit: Sky

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has said he is confident another lockdown in England could be avoided, but that the government could not rule one out.

Appearing on Kay Burley at Breakfast, he said: “I am as confident as confident can be that we won’t need one because the tiers that we have now are pretty robust.”

Asked if he could rule out another lockdown, Gove said: “You can never rule anything out in politics, but, as I say, I’m pretty confident on the basis of the rigour with which these new tiers are applying that we can prevent a national lockdown.

“One thing I fear though would be that if we were to relax the situation too rapidly then we would have the situation which we have had in some other countries, and, indeed, in Wales, where you have to slam the brakes on again.”