Rishi Sunak failed to rule out a second national lockdown after he announced new measures to bolster the economy for the second wave of the pandemic.
The Chancellor sidestepped questions from the Mirror on whether the Treasury had modelled the economic hit of another shutdown - and whether he would support it if the experts deemed tougher measures necessary.
Mr Sunak told a press conference he could not predict "exactly how this is going to go" but if the public obeyed the new rules then tougher measures might not be necessary.
The Government is facing questions over whether it should have gone further with its latest restrictions to curb spiralling infections.
Read more on mirror.co.uk