British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the coronavirus crisis needed the type of massive economic response US president Franklin D. Roosevelt mobilised to deal with the Great Depression.

Johnson told The Times newspaper's new radio station that Britain was heading for “bumpy times” as it struggles through its biggest economic contraction on record.

He intends to unveil a spending programme in a speech on Tuesday his office has simply dubbed “build, build, build”.

“I think this is the moment for a Rooseveltian approach to the UK, really really moving forward,” said Johnson.