Plans for Leicester to be the first area to go into local lockdown after a surge in coronavirus cases were a shock to the city’s council chiefs.
Sir Peter Soulsby, the mayor of Leicester, said his team had been “taken by surprise” by the idea, because that “certainly wasn’t the terms in which we’ve been talking”.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, confirmed the plan, as reported in The Sunday Times, on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning.
Government sources said that Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has been examining the legislation required for the shutdown after it was revealed that there have been 658 coronavirus cases in the Leicester area in the fortnight to June 16.
A source close to Hancock said he is
