Some of the world's biggest banks may face serious damage to their balance sheets if a second wave of coronavirus cases hit Britain, according to City experts and economists.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last night warned that lifting lockdown restrictions early would risk a second spike of cases of Covid-19, which has killed 18,100 people in Britain so far. Meanwhile, England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty warned that everyday life in the UK will not go back to normal for “really quite a long period of time” as he advised the government to maintain a social-distancing strategy until the end of the year. Discovery of a vaccine could alter that plan.