'Freedom day': Johnson's roadmap for lifting of coronavirus restrictions 

Face masks, social distancing and home-working to be ditched

Addressing the nation today, the UK's prime minister promised to tear up England’s coronavirus regulations at the next stage of the road map, including scraping social distancing requirements and making mask-wearing voluntary.

Boris Johnson said the UK must “balance the risk” of disease from Covid-19 and the harm from continuing with legal restrictions which “take their toll on people’s lives and livelihoods, on people’s health and mental health”.

"We must be honest with ourselves," he said, "if we can’t reopen our society in the next few weeks, when we will be helped by the arrival of summer, and by the school holidays...when will we be able to return to normal?"