SIR KEIR STARMER warned today that the government’s lack of an exit strategy for regions in harsh local lockdowns will cause “prolonged agony” for millions of people.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour leader repeated his call for a short, national “circuit-breaker” lockdown to replace PM Boris Johnson’s poorly funded patchwork of regional measures.

Sir Keir asked for details of how regions under Tier-2 and Tier-3 lockdowns — areas on “high” and “very high” alert respectively — would be released from harsh restrictions, which at Tier 3 include a ban on household mixing and the closure of pubs and bars.