Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, has been on BBC Breakfast this morning. He said that while holding sporting fixtures behind closed doors was an option in Britain, it was "premature" to take such steps or to cancel events now.

He said: "At the moment, the advice is clear from the chief medical officer, there isn't a need to cancel such events."

He added: "There's no reason for people either not to attend such events or to cancel them at this stage, but we keep it under review."

Asked about holding games behind closed doors as is the case in Italy, he said: "That is an option in the future but we are clear at this point there is no need for events to be cancelled.

"We are very cognisant of the impact the cancelling of events may have both in terms of the economic and social impact."

Asked about plans to shut museums, galleries or concert halls, Mr Dowden said: "I think all of this is quite premature at this stage, we are not anywhere near that sort of stage.

"Any decision will be taken on the basis of the facts and the evidence. But we are very clear - at this stage we are still in the contain phase and that means that there is no need to cancel such events, there's no need for people not to go to sporting events, to museums and so on."