Boris can’t afford to move slowly on lifting Covid restrictions

At 3.48pm on Thursday the Sun’s political editor tweeted out an explosive story that Steve Baker, the co-convenor of the Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs, had warned that Boris Johnson’s party leadership would soon be under threat if restrictions were not lifted soon.

Less than 100 minutes later, Baker put out his own tweet as follows: ‘What this country needs is the complete success of Boris Johnson… I am clear Boris is the only person to lead us out of these difficulties and I support him in that endeavour.’

In short, Baker had overplayed his hand to an embarrassing extent – much to the delight of those parliamentary colleagues who regard him as insufferable. As mass vaccinations are carried out against a backdrop of a surging new Covid variant, the vast majority of Conservative MPs are content to put lockdown angst to one side.

But while Baker chose the wrong moment to mount an attack, his fundamental point stands.