Matt Hancock will give a statement in Commons today over fears a new Indian variant of coronavirus could delay Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown.

The Health Secretary will speak to MPs at 3:30pm as officials look into whether the new variant could evade current vaccines.

160 cases of the new variant have been found in the UK, according to reports.

Boris Johnson has cancelled his visit to Delhi next week, as the coronavirus crisis worsens in India and concerns grow over a new variant there.

The Prime Minister’s already-curtailed trip was scrapped altogether on Monday, with plans for him to instead speak to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi later in the month.

Downing Street issued a joint statement from the British and Indian governments.

“In the light of the current coronavirus situation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be able to travel to India next week,” the statement said.

“Instead, Prime Ministers Modi and Johnson will speak later this month to agree and launch their ambitious plans for the future partnership between the UK and India.

“They will remain in regular contact beyond this, and look forward to meeting in person later this year.”

Professor of immunology at Imperial College London, Danny Altmann has said the mutation is likely to come a “variant of concern” which could potentially lead to India being put on the UK’s travel “red list”.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain he said: “I am concerned about all the variants. Don’t get me wrong, I think our road map is going well and at the moment, in this country, we are doing rather well, enjoying unlocking.

“But out there, there is the Indian variant, the South African, Brazilian etc, and they do pose a threat.”

He added: “At the moment, we are still vulnerable, and some people in our population are still vulnerable – what I mean by that is the Indian variant, for example, certainly has a mutation like the ones that evade the best neutralising antibodies.

“What that means is, if you have a population where at least half of us have had zero or one dose of vaccine, some won’t have made a very good response to the vaccine, because perhaps they are very old or obese or unwell, we still have a very large vulnerable population who can still be caught out by variants like this.

“At the moment, this particular variant is called a variant under investigation, not a variant of concern because it hasn’t been escalated to that level yet.

“My assumption from everything I’ve seen is that it will become a variant of concern.

“When it becomes a variant of concern, I’d be quite surprised if India wasn’t on the red list.”