Boris Johnson made a powerful  address to the nation as he returned to Downing Street to take back control of the battle against coronavirus.

Speaking outside No 10 this morning, and drawing  on his own personal fight against the virus, he said if coronavirus was ‘an assailant, an invisible mugger, which it is, we have begun to wrestle it to the floor’.

He said this was the moment of maximum risk but also the time to tackle it.

And while he understood the clamour for lockdown restrictions to be eased, he would not risk undoing all the good work of the past six weeks.

He said he refused to throw away all the efforts of the British people sand asked people to contain their impatience as ‘we are coming to the end of the first phase and we have so nearly succeeded’.

He said to British business: "I understand your impatience and I share your anxiety but without the private sector and commitment of the wealth creators of this country there will be no economy or cash to fund public services, the NHS."

He said if the public can keep going by staying home and show the same spirit of optimism shown by Captain Tom Moore, and the spirit of unity over the past six weeks he had ‘absolutely no doubt we will beat it and the UK will emerge stronger than ever before’.