Catholic leaders have attacked the imposition of a second national lockdown on England that includes church closures. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced far-reaching restrictions for England, beginning on Thursday. 

Although not included in the Prime Minister's announcement last night, updated guidance on the Government's website says that "places of worship will be closed" except for funerals, to broadcast acts of worship, or for individual prayer.

They will also be allowed to stay open if the buildings are used for schools or childcare, or to run essential services like food banks. 

Criticising the decision to close churches as part of the measures, Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Archbishop McMahon said there was no evidence that this would help reduce coronavirus numbers.

Churches, they said, had "done a great deal" to be "safe places in which all have been able to gather in supervised and disciplined ways". 

"It is thus a source of deep anguish now that the Government is requiring, once again, the cessation of public communal worship," they said.

"Whilst we understand the many difficult decisions facing the Government, we have not yet seen any evidence whatsoever that would make the banning of communal worship, with all its human costs, a productive part of combatting the virus.

"We ask the Government to produce this evidence that justifies the cessation of acts of public worship." 

They said a new national lockdown would "bring hardship, distress and suffering to many", and that they could only "hope and pray" it would be an "effective strategy against a growing pandemic which has tragically taken so many lives already and threatens so many more". 

The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, who chairs the Church of England's coronavirus recovery group, said: "We will study the detailed regulations and continue to liaise with Government departments to offer clarity to churches.

"This is a time of real uncertainty for everyone and the Church will continue to be central to the life of our communities in bringing light and hope."