Vaccine success is a boost for Boris – and the Union

Imagine for a minute what British politics would be like without a Covid vaccine. The cabinet would be deeply, and possibly irrevocably, split between those who favoured another year of lockdown on public health grounds and those who thought that the country had no alternative in the circumstances but to ease restrictions and learn to live with the virus. The 100,000 death toll would have been reached with no hope in sight and a public sense that, almost inevitably, things were going to get worse.

The vaccine has changed so much. It has given people hope. There is a belief in the general public that this will be the last lockdown, which is bolstering morale and compliance. As the country’s vaccine rollout continues on schedule, and far ahead of the European Union’s, the government is beginning to recover some of its reputation for competence. Cabinet ministers are also, for now, more united on Covid strategy than they were in the autumn.