The number of people who believe the government was too slow to impose strict restrictions to tackle the coronavirus spread has soared in the past week, a new poll revealed.

Research by Ipsos Mori found an overwhelming majority (66 per cent) of the public thought lockdown measures came "too late", up nine points from 57 per cent the week before.

More than half of Conservative voters (51 per cent) thought Boris Johnson had acted too slowly when he announced stringent restrictions to daily life on 23 March.

In a fresh headache for ministers, the snapshot poll, which was conducted between 24 and 27 April, found the public was growing less concerned about the risks of Covid-19, falling from 78 per cent when the lockdown was announced to 69 per cent at the end of April.

The number of people who are "very concerned" for the country as a whole fell to nearly half (49 per cent) from 63 per cent, while personal concern about the risks dropped to 28 per cent, down from 36 per cent since restrictions began.

The prime minister is facing increasing pressure to set out plans for easing the lockdown as he returned to work after a three-week convalescence from coronavirus.

But ministers remain deeply concerned about the risk of a second spike in cases, which could cause more deaths and a prolonged hit to the economy.

It also comes as new statistics showed the UK was moving into third place globally for coronavirus deaths with 26,097 fatalities, lagging behind only the US and Italy.

Keiran Pedley, research director at Ipsos MORI, said: “Although the public are still showing high levels of concern about the virus, these trends suggest the government faces two challenges.

Loading....

"Firstly, how do you ensure people stay in lockdown as they becomes less concerned about the risk the virus poses to themselves personally.

"Secondly, if the public reaches a consensus that the government acted too slowly in dealing with the virus in the first place, it may have difficult questions to answer on that in the future.”