Boris Johnson mocked as he appears to confuse Sheffield with Leicester in briefing on local lockdowns

In today’s press conference Johnson explained measures the Government would be putting in place to prevent future outbreaks in England as lockdown restrictions are eased from tomorrow.

During the briefing one journalist questioned why people should obey social distancing and lockdown measures after people close to the Prime Minister had not. Both Johnson’s father and his chief aide Dominic Cummings attracted criticism for flouting the rules.

Johnson replied: “I don’t want to have to go back to another national lockdown of that kind. We want to deal with local outbreaks with local lockdown measures.

“We’re greatly assisted in our ability to do that by the test and trace operation.

“We’ve seen it working in Kirklees, in Ashford, in Weston-super-Mare, and we’ve just had to do a big one now in Sheffield.”

There has not been a large track and trace operation or local lockdown announced in Sheffield. There have also been no reports of an outbreak that would necessitate either.

Many questioned whether the PM was referring to the local lockdown in Leicester, which was confirmed on Tuesday and will last two weeks, starting tomorrow.

Sheffield MP Olivia Blake wrote: “He doesn't know the difference between Sheffield and Leicester.”

Michael Markis, a professor at the University of Sheffield write: “Has Boris lost it or has there been an outbreak of #COVID19 in Sheffield that none of us knew about? Did he mean to say Leicester or has he got plans for Sheffield?”

Responding to the confusion caused by the Prime Minister’s statement, Greg Fell, Director of Public Health at Sheffield City Council, said: “We would like to be clear with the public of Sheffield that there are no ongoing incidents we are not aware of.

“We are constantly monitoring the situation and do not want our residents to feel that there is something we are not telling them.

“We are all well aware that Sheffield, like everywhere else, is not out of the woods and we all know we need to be vigilant for some time.”