The coronavirus pandemic has caused as many as 41,000 deaths in the United Kingdom so far, according to an analysis of the current statistics by the Financial Times.
The estimation is based on figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday which said the UK death toll could be 41% higher than originally reported due to deaths outside hospitals.
The official UK total is currently 17,337, according to the Department of Health which releases a daily update. Yesterday the total went up by 873.
But those figures do not take into account deaths in care homes or in the community.
It is feared the Government is underestimating the real figure by failing to include deaths not in hospitals in their daily updates.
With the number of deaths still so high there is no sign of the UK-wide lockdown ending soon with it currently expected to continue until at least the beginning of May.
Later today, Sir Keir Starmer will grill Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab over the Government's handling of the coronavirus crisis during the first ever virtual Prime Minister's Questions.
Sir Keir is likely to spend his first PMQs as Labour leader questioning Boris Johnson's stand-in over testing, protective equipment for frontline workers and an exit strategy from the lockdown.
An RAF plane landed at Brize Norton from Turkey in the early hours today, after being sent to collect a shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) - including badly-needed surgical gowns.
The Government is likely to face further questions about its participation in an EU scheme to secure vital equipment after the Foreign Office's top civil servant, Sir Simon McDonald, made an extraordinary U-turn in withdrawing his own claim that the UK did not take part because of a "political decision".
Sir Simon wrote to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee to say that his earlier evidence had been "incorrect" and reverted to the Government's defence that the scheme was not initially joined because of a "communication problem".
Meanwhile Tony Blair has said "you can't have a void of decision making" as Prime Minister Boris Johnson recovers from symptoms of the coronavirus.
The former prime minister said Mr Johnson, who was treated in intensive care and is thought not to be fully back to work, has "got to get better" and he would be consulted on major decisions regarding the government's response to the pandemic.
Mr Blair also told Good Morning Britain: "I think in a situation where every day matters and where every day decisions have to be taken, I think the person who is the acting prime minister along with what is essentially the war cabinet - the top four ministers that are meeting together - that person has got to be taking those decisions.
"You can't have a void of decision making."
