Downing Street and the Department of Health are locked in a row over post-Brexit access to an EU pandemic warning system in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Matt Hancock's department wanted to retain membership of the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) as part of the EU-UK future relationship deal – but Number 10 said no, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Senior health advisers warned that exiting the EWRS – which has helped coordinate the response to the virus and played a vital role during the bird flu outbreak – would put public health at risk.

However, the British negotiating team, which reports to Boris Johnson, did not want to blur the UK's request for a basic, Canada-style trade deal, it is claimed. Every add-on requested by the UK would risk giving the EU leverage to demand post-Brexit alignment.

Mr Hancock is also understood to have been told he could not travel to Europe to meet other health ministers because Britain has left the EU.

The details emerged as the Department of Health disclosed 12 new cases of coronavirus in the UK, a 50 per cent increase in the space of just 24 hours.