Boris Johnson signals some lifting of lockdown measures could begin on Monday

He told MPs: "We have to be sure that the data is going to support our ability to do this but that data is coming in continuously over the next few days.

"We will want, if we possibly can, to get going with some of these measures on Monday and it will be a good thing if people have an idea of what is coming the following day. That is why I think Sunday—the weekend—is the best time to do it." 

Ministers have hinted that cafes might be able to reopen in the summer months if they can provide outdoor facilities.

Ian Blackford for the SNP asked the PM to confirm if the substance of his televised address to the nation on Sunday would be "fully agreed" with the devolved nations.

Mr Johnson told the hybrid sitting, with some MPs in the chamber and some asking questions via videolink, that he shared the Nationalist leader’s desire, noting: "We'll do our level best to make sure that the outlines of this attract the widest possible consensus; they can and ought to.”

Mr Blackford is expected to meet the PM along with other opposition leaders tomorrow. Labour made clear that Sir Keir would be calling for a “national consensus” on easing any restrictions.

Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, is also due to attend a virtual meeting of Whitehall’s emergency Cobra committee before the weekend.

As well as a Cabinet meeting tomorrow, there will be another one, expected on Saturday, when UK ministers will sign off the “unlockdown” document, which will focus on social distancing measures.

Following PMQs, Mr Johnson’s spokesman, asked if there would be a “whole UK” approach to beginning to lift the restrictions, replied: “We have sought throughout to take a four-nations’ approach. We continue to believe that provides the best way forward.”

He pointed out tomorrow’s deadline was simply for the Government to meet its legal requirement to complete its three-week review, not to have to publish it. The spokesman explained ministers would then “take a bit of time to get the messaging right. We believe Sunday is when we will be best-placed to do it”. He added the review would be completed and “then we will be in a position to set out the measures”.

Referring to a “different type of normal,” the spokesman explained: “We will obviously want to ensure any easements we do make are carefully monitored and we aren’t doing things that risk the rate of infection and push that R number above one.”

Asked if there would be three phases of lifting restrictions, he replied: “You’re going to have to wait and see.”

Asked if there would be specific dates on easing certain restrictions, the spokesman noted: “If you are going to be pointing towards potential dates, you want to feel confident you are going to be able to make those changes on the dates that you have given.”

He went on: “What we will have to do as we make changes is monitor the impact those changes are having on the R rate in particular and once we have that information we will be able to judge if and when we can go further.”

In the Commons chamber, the PM told MPs either he “or the Government” would make a statement to them on Monday.

During PMQs exchanges, Mr Johnson said he "bitterly" regretted the Covid-19 crisis in care homes and expressed frustration about problems supplying personal protective equipment.

The PM was challenged by Sir Keir, who accused the Government of having been slow to respond to the outbreak, leaving the UK with the highest death toll in Europe.

The Government met its 100,000 a day testing target by the end of April but has since failed to maintain that level in early May.

Mr Johnson announced: “The ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of this month and then to go even higher."

Downing St later pointed out he was referring to an "operational target to have the capacity across all of the different testing pillars to do 200,00 tests a day". It could include anti-body tests if a reliable and accurate mechanism was found.

The PM told MPs a "fantastic testing regime" would be critical to the UK's long-term economic recovery.

The route out of lockdown will rely on a test, track and trace programme to quickly identify new cases of coronavirus and prevent the further spread of the infection.

Although hospital deaths are falling, ministers and officials have struggled to get a grip on the crisis in care homes, where some of the most vulnerable people risk contracting the disease.

Mr Johnson said: "There is an epidemic going on in care homes which is something I bitterly regret and we have been working very hard for weeks to get it down and a huge amount of effort has been gone into by literally tens of thousands of people to get the right PPE into care homes, to encourage workers in care homes to understand what is needed."

But he claimed there had been a "palpable improvement" in the situation in care homes in recent days.

Sir Keir pointed out how "clearly there are ongoing problems" with PPE and that "it is obvious that this problem is going to get even more acute if and when the Government ask people to return to work" as more people will need it to do their jobs.

Mr Johnson said it had been “enraging to see the difficulties we've had in supplying PPE to those who need it" but the Government was now "engaged in a massive plan to ramp up domestic supply".

Earlier, Matt Hancock suggested that as lockdown measures were eased the public could return to pavement cafes.

"There is strong evidence that outdoors the spread is much, much lower, so there may be workarounds that some businesses, for instance cafes, especially over the summer, may be able to put into place," the UK Health Secretary told Sky News.

In a frank interview, Mr Hancock also said it would have been good if the UK had gone into the Covid-19 pandemic with the diagnostic capabilities of Germany and added that experts were looking at how people who were shielding could be given more freedom before a vaccine was found.