As Boris Johnson wines and dines world leaders and their partners in Cornwall, ministers are increasingly pessimistic over the pace of the government roadmap out of lockdown. The Prime Minister isn’t due to make a final decision on whether the June 21 unlocking will proceed until Sunday with an announcement due on Monday. Yet in Whitehall, reports are circulating that a delay is near inevitable and that rather than the two week delay floated in the papers last week it could actually be for a month.
Government aides are gloomy over the chances of any substantial reopening – pointing to rising case numbers as reason for caution. Recent data has encouraged ministers to take the view that the Indian variant – estimated to be 64 per cent more infectious than the Kent strain – means any significant unlocking cannot go ahead.
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