An East Devon man who now lives on the Spanish island of Mallorca says the lockdown in the UK may need to go further if it is abused.

Exmouth Journal: Matthew Cull has been living in Mallorca for around three years. Picture: Matthew CullMatthew Cull has been living in Mallorca for around three years. Picture: Matthew Cull (Image: Archant)

Matthew Cull, 42, who has been living under the restrictions of a lockdown in Spain for more than a week, has previously called for people in the UK to exercise social distancing more seriously to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

But reacting to the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday evening, which introduced great curbs on how we behave, Mr Cull said: “I see Boris’ message as a step forward but still at the moment a ‘soft’ lockdown.

“The ‘get out for once a day exercising’ is open to abuse, and will be abused based on the idiocy demonstrated by large numbers of Britons in recent days.

“If the curve doesn’t begin to flatten, or if people are abusing the new guidelines then I would hope to see in the coming days a harder lockdown more in line with Italy and Spain.”

Mr Cull, who lives in south western Mallorca with his wife Lisa and his 10-year-old son, where he co-owns magazine Celebrity Mallorca, and formerly worked for Archant, publishers of the Midweek Herald, Exmouth Journal and Sidmouth Herald.

Speaking on Sunday, he said: “We are all urging friends and family in the UK to understand that the UK is following the graph of both Spain and Italy, and therefore on course for well over 4,000 deaths within the next two weeks.

“They simply don’t realise the numbers of people already infected. It seems the UK is in denial.”