Boris Johnson’s plan for easing the lockdown is essentially the same as Leo Varadkar’s, Angela Merkel’s and Emmanuel Macron’s: a careful, phased reopening with each stage conditional on the coronavirus reproduction rate remaining low. But his decision to announce the outline of the plan on Sunday night before publishing the details on Monday left the British prime minister struggling all day to control the message.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab started the day by announcing that those who could not work at home should go back to work on Wednesday, not Monday as Downing Street suggested the previous day. Then Raab muddled the message about how many members of another household people could now meet outdoors (the correct answer is one).
Clueless on safety
By the time the 50-page road map for unlocking the lockdown was published at 2pm, the government already appeared clueless about how to ensure that those going back to work would be safe both when they got there and on public transport. And Johnson’s failure to agree a common approach with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland reinforced the impression that the plan was half-baked.
"There is now a three-nations approach: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all agree on policy and message. I mean this with no malice, but for the sake of clarity, can the prime minister confirm that on almost everything he has announced today he is acting as the prime minister of England?" Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville Roberts said in the Commons.
‘Directions’ needed
Nobody wants to admit to malice or to being alert to the political stakes of the coronavirus crisis and Labour leader Keir Starmer stressed a number of times on Monday that he understood how difficult were the decisions the government had to make. In a televised response on Monday evening to the prime minister's statement, Starmer filleted Johnson's plan and laid out its shortcomings, contradictions and unanswered questions without malice but with no mercy either.
“The prime minister said he was setting out a road map, but if we’re to complete the journey safely a road map needs clear directions. So many of us have questions that need answering,” he said.
"How can we be sure our workplaces are now safe to return to? How can we get to work safely if we need public transport to do so? How can millions of people go back to work while balancing childcare and caring responsibilities? How do our police enforce these rules? And why are some parts of the United Kingdom now on a different path to others?"