Prepare for a radically different Tory party

Before he went into isolation, Boris Johnson had remarked to Downing Street aides that he was keen to get back to the agenda on which he had been elected. But as I say in the magazine this week, this virus has now so changed the landscape that there will be no simple return to the world before coronavirus. One normally understated Downing Street figure predicts it will ‘change things for a generation’.

The question for the government is whether it wishes to attempt to return to what went before or to try and combine its various agendas – levelling-up, Brexit and net zero – in its post-Corona reconstruction job. Currently, all the signs point to the latter. ‘We’re emphatic that we’re not interested in the status quo ante’, says one Cabinet Minister. 

So the government is resolved not to seek an extension to the Brexit transition period. It also won’t give up on its infrastructure plans: as one close ally points out, Boris Johnson believes them to be key to delivering economic growth.