Boris Johnson’s administration is right to start reopening schools, former Labour prime minister Tony Blair has said.

The government’s plans to start sending children back to school in less than a fortnight has come under attack from teaching unions and some local authorities, with critics arguing it is too soon to lift the coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

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Mr Johnson, in his address to the nation on 10 May, said Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils would be the first to go back, starting on 1 June “at the earliest”.

He said his ambition was that secondary students scheduled to take exams next year would “get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays”.

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In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight broadcast yesterday, Mr Blair defended the government, saying that it was adhering to scientific advice by preparing schools to open their doors again.

“They’re right, I think, to be reopening the schools,” he said.

“I don’t think they would say that they’re putting school opening above health risks. What they’re doing is basing it on the evidence, actually.

“There are countries that have reopened parts, at least, of their school system.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock looked to reassure the House of Commons yesterday, telling MPs that only a “very small” number of children were “badly affected” by Covid-19.

Mr Blair backed up the comments, telling the BBC his own institute - the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change - had gathered data showing that “especially for younger children, the risks of transmission are actually quite low”.

The former Downing Street incumbent argued that private schools had been continuing to educate their pupils, while some youngsters in the state system had been given “no education at all” since schools were told to shut their gates on 20 March as the coronavirus outbreak took hold.

“Let’s be clear, the private schools will have been educating their children throughout this,” added Mr Blair, a father of four.

“Parts of the state system will have been. But then there are some children who will have been having no education at all. You’ve got to get the schools back.”

Union leaders remain unconvinced with the argument put forward by ministers and Mr Blair, however.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, told BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme that teachers “haven’t yet seen the scientific underpin” to back up the assertion that the transmission risk among pupils is low.

He has called on ministers to write to unions explaining the government’s assessment.