FOREIGN Secretary Philip Hammond sought to reassure the public over fears that Ebola could spread in Britain yesterday as experts met to discuss the “very serious threat” from the largest ever outbreak of the disease.

Mr Hammond said the possibility of people contracting the deadly virus in west Africa and falling sick in Britain was being contemplated by health officials.

But he said it was “most unlikely” that Ebola could spread within Britain because of “frankly different” standards of infection control in this country.

Speaking after a meeting of the Cobra government emergencies committee on the issue, he said the “logical” approach was to tackle the disease at source in west Africa.

He said: “We need to just keep this in context — it’s a horrible disease and this is a significant outbreak but the current number of people affected, spread across three countries, is containable at the moment.”