PEOPLE will be able to see family and friends again after seven weeks of lockdown, the secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs has said.

In a series of interviews this morning Dominic Raab provided further details on the Government’s updated stance on coronavirus mitigation measures after Boris Johnson’s speech yesterday evening left many questions unanswered.

This included telling the BBC that families and friends from different households would now be able to meet up in public places, if they followed certain precautions and showed “common sense”.

This was forbidden under previous Stay Home advice delivered by the Prime Minister in Late March.

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

Mr Raab said: “If you go out of (your) home to the park for exercise or whatever it may be, you can go with members of your own household.

“If you’re out in the park and you’re two metres apart, we’re saying, now, if you use some common sense and you socially distance then you can meet up with other people.

“The key thing is people want to get outdoors, particularly with this weather, particularly, I think, for mental health (reasons) and, frankly, I think the frustration people feel if they are cooped for too long for protracted periods, we want to make sure that people can enjoy the outdoors more.

“But people must stay alert because the more we do some of the things we want to do, the more we need to just be careful about this social distancing.

“We will keep the two metres social distancing and they will be fine in those outdoor spaces.”

When quizzed on whether somebody would be allowed to meet one relative in the morning and another in the afternoon, he answered: “Outside, in the outdoors, if you stay two metres apart, yes.”

His statements follow the Prime Minister’s announcement that the Government is now urging people to Stay Alert rather then the Stay Home mantra which has been used previously.

It is being seen as the beginnings of an ease in lockdown measures, with unlimited outdoor exercise now allowed as opposed to the one bout of short outdoor activity which had previously been encouraged.