Prime minister Boris Johnson has said that it’s time to start “living with Covid.” As of Thursday, contact-tracing will end, as will mandatory self-isolation for the infected. State-funded coronavirus testing will also be stopped except for the vulnerable. (People are obviously less likely to get tested if they have to pay for it themselves.)
According to Johnson, Brits should see the change in policy as a “moment of pride for our nation and a source of hope for all that we can achieve in the years to come.” However, Johnson’s opponents see it as a diversionary tactic amid the ongoing political challenge of surviving Partygate.
Will it work? It could go either way, as Freddie Hayward, for the New Statesman, explains:
The Prime Minister’s announcement in the Commons was met with a buoyant response from his own MPs. David Davis, who only weeks ago demanded that Johnson “in the name of God go”, greeted the announcement with warmth. Mark Harper welcomed the Prime Minister’s statement and jokingly invited him to join his lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group.
What does this tell us? Importantly, the announcement will bolster Johnson’s support among his own backbenchers as the prospect of the police handing him a fixed penalty notice looms. But it also speaks to the volatility of that support: a damaging result of the police investigation may just as quickly turn the tide of backbench opinion against him.