Pubs, bars and restaurants in England will be ordered to close by 10pm each night from Thursday under tough restrictions set to be announced by Boris Johnson in a bid to curb the rapid rise in coronavirus cases.

It comes after the Government’s chief scientific and medical advisers painted a grim picture of how 200 or more people in the UK could die each day by mid-November if the current rate of infection is not halted.

But the fresh restriction sparked anger from the hospitality sector, with Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, describing them as 'another crushing blow' for many businesses.

She said: “A hard close time is bad for business and bad for controlling the virus – we need to allow time for people to disperse over a longer period."