THE Government's "stay at home" message may have been "slightly too successful" a leading statistician has warned amid polling data which shows Britons are fearful about any easing of the lockdown.

A recent survey for Ipsos Mori suggested that more than 60% of Britons would feel uncomfortable carrying out their usual activities - like going to bars or restaurants, or using public transport - if the lockdown is eased.

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, of Cambridge University, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's much harder to frighten to people to stay at home than it is to reassure them they can go out again.

"Maybe our whole campaign has been, if anything, slightly too successful."

Sir David also warned against taking a "Eurovision approach" and making "naive comparisons" in contrasting the UK with other countries' Covid-19 deaths.

He added: "I think it's too early to tell our exact place in the league table.

"My article was arguing against this almost Eurovision approach of trying to say who's top, who's second and so on. It's just not appropriate to do at all.

"There are so many variabilities about how people record Covid deaths - even what the correct metric is for measuring the impact of the epidemic - that to start saying we're going to be worse or whatever is completely inappropriate."