Chancellor Rishi Sunak was willing to accept a short delay to Step 4 of the road map to ending the lockdown amid a rise in cases, it is understood.

A Whitehall source pointed towards the Treasury having gone “long” on emergency coronavirus support packages in the Budget to cover the possibility of a delay to the plans.

It comes as Tory lockdown-sceptic Sir Charles Walker warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson against delaying the earmarked end to legal coronavirus restrictions.

The vice chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs told BBC Newsnight: “There will be a huge wave of disappointment across the country if we don’t open up on June 21.

“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.

“The goalposts – as we’ve always said, it’s a well-worn cliche – are moving.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday there was a “challenging decision” to be made over the further lifting of Covid restrictions on June 21.

Mr Hancock also announced that a “strengthened package of support” will be provided for Greater Manchester and Lancashire, similar to that seen in Bolton, where case numbers remain high.

Earlier, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said any delay to England’s road map for easing lockdown would only be for a couple of weeks, owing to the success of the vaccination programme.

Mr Hunt, who chairs the Health and Social Care Committee, said he was “feeling quite optimistic that we are going to see the restrictions lifted” as “being double-jabbed” works against the Indian variant.

He told Times Radio: “If freedom day ends up being put back a couple of weeks so we can get more people double-jabbed, I think it will only be a temporary setback.”