Britain will grind to a halt on Monday as trains across the country are canceled and people are told to stay at home in the heat wave.
General speed limits will be imposed on all railway lines, with both the train operators and Highways England warning people not to travel.
The Met Office said it would be safer “in general” for people to stay indoors if possible.
Some GP practices and operating rooms have already closed because hospital bosses warned the extreme weather made it difficult to keep the services running. Labor centers in areas covered by: the red severe weather warning will also be closed.
schools in several counties, including Nottinghamshire and Hampshire, confirmed they would close two days after the health warnings. Others have cut the hours amid Met Office warnings that temperatures will rise to 38°C and 40°C in some areas.
the UKs first red warning for extreme heat covers much of England from London to Manchester and York for both Monday and Tuesday and the UK Health Security Agency has issued a heat warning at level four, which is being described as a “national emergency”.
Tracy Nicholls, the chief executive of the College of Paramedics, warned that the “savage heat” could kill people.
But Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, said the country must be resilient enough to withstand the pressures of the heat and urged people to “enjoy the sun” as long as they take “common sense” precautions.
David Davis, a senior Tory backbencher, said: “If you are at risk, if you are a young child or elderly person or have any other condition then be careful and of course use hats and sunscreen and use the shade. But people do exist in Mediterranean climates and deal with it, so if we use common sense, we can do the same.”
Another senior Tory MP said he thought the public health reports were “grossly inflated and scare tactics of the worst kind”.