Between 20,000 and 30,000 lives could have been saved with earlier lockdown in UK, says expert

Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said thousands of lives could have been saved with an earlier lockdown (Parliament TV/PA)

Between 20,000 and 30,000 lives could have been saved if the UK had locked down a week earlier, a leading adviser said, as he told how scientists grew increasingly concerned about the lack of a clear plan.

Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, whose modelling was instrumental in persuading the UK government to bring in the first lockdown, suggested there was a growing realisation in early March 2020 that the country was heading for a large number of deaths.