Matt Hancock refused to directly answer whether people have a legal right not to go to work if they do not feel safe due to coronavirus.

The health secretary was asked the question twice on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning.

In response, he said: “Well this needs to be a collaborative effort. Absolutely workplaces need to follow the guidelines on making a workplace safe for Covid, so that is very important.

“Critically, everybody who can work from home should continue to work from home.”

Asked for a second time whether people are protected by law if they felt unsafe in the workplace, Hancock said: “Well, employment law has not changed, but that isn’t the point.

“The point is that businesses and employees should be working together to make the best of a very difficult situation.”

In his address to the nation on Sunday, prime minister Boris Johnson said those not able to do their jobs from home, such as construction and manufacturing employees, should be encouraged to go to work. 

Working parents can send their children to a childminder, the government said, but cannot rely on family members who do not live in the same house as them. 

Hancock said there was a “common sense” principle as to why children cannot be looked after by relatives from outside their household.

“For some people’s livelihoods they need a childminder in order to earn an income and so that is important we allow that to happen,” he added.

“But at the same time we don’t want to encourage the large scale, we don’t want to encourage people, especially when grandparents are older, and we know this virus kills more older people than younger people, so we don’t want to encourage kids to stay with their grandparents, but we do want to allow people, where possible to get back to work.

“So again, there is a common sense principle as to why we’ve come up with that proposal.

“I know it can be frustrating for people.”

The government’s new “stay alert, control the virus, save lives” guidance is due to come into effect on Wednesday.