BORIS JOHNSON is set to toughen coronavirus measures for England this evening.

The Prime Minister has been under increased pressure to swiftly impose harsher rules after Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a full lockdown from midnight tonight.

In a televised speech, Mr Johnson is expected to announce that the whole of England will enter Tier 4 – the highest level of restrictions – and that all schools will be shut.

A No 10 spokesman said that action was being taken in response to the “rapidly escalating” number of infections following the emergence of the new virus variant. It follows rising pressure from education unions and many local authorities for schools to shift online.

MPs will be recalled to Parliament on Wednesday to debate the new measures.

Government sources said that the chief medical officers had agreed to raise the Covid-19 alert level to five – its highest – meaning that “transmission is high or rising exponentially” and that “there is a material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed.”

Before his speech, the PM said there was “no question” that tougher action was needed as previous restrictions had failed to ease pressure on the NHS and lower the number of infections.

Scotland’s lockdown, which includes school closures for most pupils and a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes, starting at midnight tonight and will continue until the end of January.

Announcing the measures, Ms Sturgeon told MSPs in Holyrood: “It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year.”

Council leaders in Birmingham and Liverpool – areas that were in Tier 4 and Tier 3 respectively – had pressured Mr Johnson to replace the patchwork of regional restrictions with a full lockdown.

With 78 per cent of England’s population already in Tier 4, ministers were examining how successful the measures – which came into force for the first time on December 20 – have been.

The latest data shows a 41 per cent rise in the number of confirmed coronavirus patients in hospital in England between Christmas Day and January 3.

In London, a Tier 4 area since December 20, case rates are the highest in England. Hospitals in the capital have a record number of patients with Covid-19 — 6,358 people as of 8am on January 3.