'Have you pressed the button?’: Boris Johnson muted in middle of critical COVID announcement

Watch: Boris Johnson gets muted during coronavirus answer

Boris Johnson discovered even the prime minister can’t escape the trials of working from home as Downing Street’s videolink to parliament appeared to break during his critical coronavirus announcement.

Conservative Mark Harper MP asked Johnson – who dialled in remotely as he self-isolates – to set out the impact of the new, tougher coronavirus tiers he will put England into after lockdown expires on 2 December.

He said he wanted to know the new system would “save more lives than it costs”.

As Johnson began responding, he said he hoped many of his questions would have been answered in his speech earlier but then his audio went down as he continued talking.

MPs laughed and looked on with amusement, and Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle asked: “Have you pressed the button, prime minister?”

After several moments of silence, the sitting was suspended before resuming with health secretary Matt Hancock taking questions.

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