Tory nerves ahead of the Prime Minister’s lockdown address

When Boris Johnson addresses the nation on Sunday night to unveil his roadmap for easing lockdown in the coming weeks and months, it isn’t just the public he needs to bring with him – he also needs to convince his parliamentary party. Over the past week there has been a shift in mood in the Tory Party with a rising number of MPs growing anxious over what they perceive as the slow pace of lockdown easing. As one MP puts it: ‘People have started to get skittish.’

When Johnson returned to work following his hospitalisation over coronavirus there had been a hope among the party’s libertarian right that this would mean a fast-track route back to business as usual: he was visibly uncomfortable at the press conferences in the build-up to his announcement of the lockdown on 23 March. Instead, since returning to No. 10, the Prime Minister has shown a sense of cautiousness that has surprised some colleagues.