Rishi Sunak is understood to be willing to accept a short delay of just a week or two to the planned easing of Covid restrictions on 21 June amid a rise in cases.
The chancellor is among a group of ministers pushing for the economy to open up quickly but is said to have accepted step 4 in the government’s roadmap – pencilled in for later this month – may need to be pushed back amid a surge in Delta variant infections.
It comes as Tory lockdown-sceptic Sir Charles Walker warned the prime minister against delaying the earmarked end to legal coronavirus restrictions.
The vice chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs told BBC Newsnight: "The delay could be two weeks, a month, but I think the real issue here is if we can't open up the economy at the height of summer then I think we are facing the very real prospect of more forced lockdowns in the autumn - I just don't see how we can avoid that.”
