Javid: NHS backlog will get worse before it gets better

Sajid Javid’s parallel statement in the Commons to Boris Johnson’s press conference on the government’s plan for unlocking drew the same criticisms about failing to protect the vulnerable and bowing to Tory backbench pressure. He did get a ‘hallelujah’ from one such backbencher as he spoke of the end of social distancing. But the health secretary faced anger from the opposition benches about the decision to leave mask wearing up to the public and businesses at a time when cases are rising. Green MP Caroline Lucas compared Covid restrictions to road safety laws, asking why a similar approach to the speed limit couldn’t be taken to mask-wearing.

Masks, which were dismissed by the experts at the start of the pandemic, have now become a symbol of how much individuals and governments care about vulnerable people and the health service. But Javid’s argument was that society needs to learn to live with Covid and ‘now is the best time to do that, because of the defence that has been built by the vaccine’.