No 10 quizzed on why more Cabinet ministers have not been wearing face coverings

Downing Street has faced questions about why more Cabinet ministers are not wearing face coverings after new figures suggested the majority of Britons are covering up while in public.

Fresh data from the Office for National Statistics indicated that 52% of adults in Britain had worn a face covering when leaving their home in the final week of June, up from 43% on the week before.

Regardless of whether they had worn a face covering previously, 58% of the 1,788 adults quizzed between July 2-5 said they were very or fairly likely to wear one in the next seven days.

The level of usage provoked further questions for Number 10 about why so few of the Government’s leading figures had been spotted wearing a face covering.

There have been no public sightings of Prime Minister Boris Johnson wearing a face covering while Chancellor Rishi Sunak, following his summer economic statement, was pictured serving food to customers at a Wagamama restaurant in central London without a non-surgical mask.

Government recommendations as part of the “one metre-plus” guidance are that measures such as wearing a face covering should be taken if people indoors cannot keep two metres away from each other.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister, asked about ministers not donning face masks, said: “I don’t spend my time with individual ministers but all the ministers abide by the social distancing guidance which is in place.”