Environment

"Cramming animals together on overcrowded, faeces-ridden factory farms also creates breeding grounds for deadly pathogens like the novel coronavirus and bird flu – an outbreak of which the UK is currently enduring."

But Jon Sparkes, chief executive of the charity Crisis, warned that ending these policies could force “devastating numbers” of people to the brink.

The total figure was up 37% on the 710 UK deaths reported in the 2019 study.

Findings show that the pandemic affected a system “already cut to the bone from 10 years of austerity” and called on the Government to “stop repackaging old funding commitments as new support and do more to stop this terrible loss of life”.

Two thirds of adults were unaware that bees are at risk, while 60 per cent assumed the gorilla population was thriving.

“The seas around the UK are like an assault course for marine mammals, causing largely unseen suffering and death.”

Images of people queueing in the snow for food parcels from charity Kindness Homeless Street Team Glasgow earlier this week sparked an outcry on social media, with some comparing it to Eastern Europe under communist rule.

“The Tory Government’s been stalling on this for months – will the Prime Minister finally act, or will he leave millions of children out in the cold?”

The Crown Estate owns the seabed off the coast of the UK, so is a vital part of freeing up land for offshore wind projects.