Britain Faces 'Bumpy Months' in Run-Up to Christmas, Beyond, Boris Johnson Warns

He said that while he hoped things would be “significantly different” before the festive period, there was “no doubt” that the UK faced a difficult period as it grappled with a COVID-19 second wave.

He added that although it was possible to make “significant progress” on a vaccine this year, it would be wrong to get “people’s hopes up...unnecessarily”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Johnson appeared to acknowledge that the Eat Out to Help Out scheme may have helped fuel a resurgence in the virus.

While insisting that it was necessary to protect two million jobs in hospitality, he said it was now necessary to “counteract” the impact the scheme may have had on the spread of COVID-19 through tougher national and local restrictions, The Telegraph reported.

He also hit back at claims that he was no longer up to the task, insisting that the public would find it “totally inappropriate” if he adopted his usual “buoyancy” and “élan” in the midst of an unprecedented crisis.

He added that suggestions that he was still suffering from the effects of coronavirus were “balderdash and nonsense” and insisted that he was now “fitter than several butchers dogs.”

Pressed on the inconsistencies with local lockdown measures, Johnson said he could “totally understand” people’s frustration when asked why funeral gatherings faced tougher restrictions in Oldham than other places nearby.

And he insisted that it was still too early to assess the impact of local measures, despite areas like Manchester seeing a tenfold increase in cases after having tougher restrictions imposed in July.

Asked why the measures had failed to halt the spread, Johnson added: “There are clearly a number of factors in play. And clearly we’ve put a lot more load back on the risk factor in that we’ve got schools back, we’ve got businesses back, we’re moving again in a way that they weren’t during the lockdown in March and April.

“But we’ve managed to keep hospital admissions much, much lower than they were in that period, we’ve managed to keep the death rate down, although we need to make sure we keep it down.

“The balance is how do you ensure that places across the country continue to fight the virus effectively while keeping the economy going.

“In all candor, it’s going to continue to be bumpy through to Christmas, it may be bumpy beyond.”

In an apparent attempt to reconcile his tough approach on restrictions with Rishi Sunak’s calls for people to “live without fear”, Johnson said he wanted people to “behave fearlessly but with common sense.”

However, he was challenged over earlier suggestions that people had become too complacent over the summer, at a time when the Government was encouraging people to go visit bars and restaurants and return to the office.

Johnson said that reopening the economy was vital to stop “hundreds of thousands of more jobs” from being lost, as well as “tens of billions (of pounds)” being drained from the economy.

Asked for the scientific evidence behind the 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants, Johnson said that transmission increased as “people get more convivial as the evening goes on.”

But when asked if people spilling out onto the streets after closing time was inadvertently fuelling the problem, he added that the onus was on people not to “hobnob” and to follow the public health guidance.

With the latest figures showing that just 38 per cent of people were receiving in-person test results within 24 hours, Johnson said he was “of course frustrated” with the test and trace system but insisted that when compared with others internationally it was “very good.”

He added that while securing a vaccine by the end of the year was “not certain”, scientists were “virtually unanimous” that by the spring things would be “radically different.”

“We will be in a different world,” he added.

Having recently set out a new obesity strategy, Johnson said the pandemic had highlighted that the UK was “slightly too fat” and pointed to issues with his own weight when he fell ill with the virus.

"If I may say so, this is a teachable moment for our great country because we are one of the greatest places on Earth but, alas, as a nation we are slightly too fat.

"We are fatter than virtually anybody else in Europe, apart from the Maltese for some reason, and we need to think about this.

"I don't wish to cast any aspersions on my Maltese friends."

When pressed on US President Donald Trump’s health, he said he was sure he would be “fine” and was receiving the “best possible care”.

But when asked if Trump should cut down on the number of cheeseburgers he eats, the Prime Minister added: "This is an important point, obesity - I'm not making any comment on President Trump - but obesity, since you mention cheeseburgers, is one of the problems that this country needs to address.

"Not just because it threatens all our health but in the long term we need to tackle it to reduce the pressures on the NHS."

Turning to negotiations over an EU-UK free trade deal, Johnson said the UK could “live with” no agreement at the end of the transition period, but added that he hoped Brussels would concede to the UK’s demands for a Canada-style deal.

“We're very close to our European friends and partners, we've been members of the EU for 45 years, I see no reason why we shouldn't get those sorts of terms,” he continued.

"I don't want the Australian-WTO type outcome, particularly, but we can more than live with it."

His comments mark a notable change in tone from earlier in the year, when Johnson insisted that the UK could “prosper mightily” in the event of no deal.