Will Boris Johnson listen to his MPs on lockdown?

In coronavirus, the Prime Minister faces both a public health crisis and an economic crisis. Up until now, Tory MPs feel as though Boris Johnson has prioritised the former. But with new figures from the ONS showing the UK economy shrank by a record 20.4 per cent in April and the furlough scheme being reduced in August, there’s a sense that the economic damage will soon have to take priority.

While repeated polling suggests the public has been receptive to lockdown measures and worry about it ending too quickly, the Conservative parliamentary party has, in large part, been agitating for a quicker easing than offered. Tory MPs have made their displeasure known at the two-week quarantine policy, the delay to the reopening of schools and most recently the two-metre rule.

So far Downing Street has been comfortable enough overriding such concerns and picking a more cautious route out of lockdown. Although a majority of the cabinet has also been agitating for more lockdown measures to be relaxed, the view in Downing Street has been that those on the outside don’t understand the complexities of the unwinding of lockdown.