The coronavirus lockdown will not end in one go, the PM's second in command has said.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that restrictions currently in force across England will not disappear in one “big bang” but that the nation could instead return to a tiered system.

He told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “The aim is by the middle of February to have 88 per cent of those most at risk of dying of coronavirus with their first jab, and by the early spring to have 99 per cent – so that is the milestone if you like.

“I think it is true to say that when we get to a situation in the early spring, perhaps March, if we succeed in hitting those targets – we have made good process so far – we can start to think about the phased transition out of the national lockdown.

“I think it is fair to say it won’t be a big bang, if you like, it will be done phased, possibly back through the tiered approach that we had before.”

Before November's four-week lockdown, Basingstoke, and the rest of Hampshire, had been in the loosest restrictions, tier one.

But after emerging from the lockdown, it was put into tier two.

After worries about the new strain that increased transmissability, in Boxing Day the town was put into tier four restrictions, which lasted until the third lockdown came into force at the start of January.

Before restrictions could be eased, there needs to be low case numbers and the most vulnerable should be vaccinated, an epidemiologist has said.

Professor Azra Ghani, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Imperial College London, told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “The first thing we need to focus on right now is getting those case numbers down.

“Really, we want to get back to the situation we were in the summer with relatively low case numbers compared to now, so that we can actually test and trace and reduce onward infections.

“At the same time we’re, of course, rolling out a vaccine, that’s something we haven’t had up until now and that vaccine rollout is going very well.

“That will hopefully protect those that are most vulnerable to the severe consequences of this disease.

“We’ll need to get a balance of these two things in place before we can start to lift restrictions and it’s very difficult to say exactly when that will be.”