The UK is on track to lift coronavirus restrictions as planned, but the country could still be hit by the third wave sweeping Europe, Boris Johnson has said.

The prime minister said he could see nothing in the data to stop him “continuing along our roadmap to freedom”.

“In just a few days’ time, I’m finally going to be able to go to the barbers. But more important than that, I’m going to be able to go down the street and cautiously, but irreversibly, I’m going to drink a pint of beer in the pub,” he said.

“And as things stand, I can see absolutely nothing in the data to dissuade me from continuing along our roadmap to freedom, unlocking our economy and getting back to the life we love.”

But Johnson said it was still unclear how the surge in coronavirus cases across Europe would affect the UK. He said “bitter experience” had shown a wave in Europe would tend to hit the UK three weeks later.

“I think the second half of the year will have the potential to be really fantastic. But it depends on things still going right,” he said. “We depend on the successful vaccine programme, and disease not taking off again.”

“The question is, is it going to be, this time, as bad it has been in the past? Or have we sufficiently mitigated, muffled, blunted impact by the vaccine rollout? That’s a question we still don’t really know the answer to.”

Boris Johnson has sparked new controversy over when employees should return to their workplaces by suggesting people have had enough “days off” at home during the pandemic, and should try to go back to their offices.

The prime minister’s comments – which followed remarks from the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, urging companies to reopen offices when the pandemic eases or risk losing staff – caused alarm among scientists, and were branded by Labour as “irresponsible” and “glaringly inconsistent” with the government’s own route out of lockdown.