The lockdown battle of Marseilles is a warning for Boris

From the vantage point of Downing Street, Boris Johnson may feel reassured that the further measures against Covid-19 he imposed this week, along with the extraordinary fines with which he has decided to enforce restrictions across the country, appear to have public support. Indeed, one poll suggested that upwards of 60 per cent of the population believe the government did not go far enough last week when it ordered pubs to close at 10 p.m.

But the Prime Minister should not be fooled by that apparent backing. Before he commits himself to any further action he needs to look to Marseilles, where President Emmanuel Macron has come unstuck after trying to impose similar measures. Having previously said that he would not respond to a second Covid-19 wave with a lockdown, Macron nevertheless issued an order for the bars and restaurants in France’s second-largest city to close for a fortnight.

In France, as in Britain, the initial lockdown in March was met with little opposition: nothing was known about Covid-19 and Imperial College London drew up a scenario showing the virus was capable of causing 730,000 deaths in France alone.