LONDON – Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been swept for months by the forces of the pandemic, caught between an opposition accusing him of acting too late and lawmakers in his own party complaining that he went too far to capturing the British economy curbs the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, however, Johnson went to parliament with some of his toughest measures to date, and the riotous back seats of the room were quiet. The serious health crisis that Britain is now facing is so dire that it has temporarily silenced the political debates that have raged since the virus first broke out in the country 11 months ago.
Mr. Johnson overwhelmingly approved the legislation to introduce a new national exclusion, which he said would take effect until March 31, although it is possible that some of the measures would be relaxed before then.
“As was the case last spring, our emergence from the lock-up cocoon will not be a big bang, but a gradual unpacking,” Johnson declared in parliament, adding that the government would lift the restrictions “if it no longer deemed necessary to limit the transmission of the virus. “
Labor leader opposition leader Keir Starmer threw his party’s support behind the measures, only regretting that Johnson did not move faster. Mr. Starmer calls the current period the “darkest moment of the pandemic.”
The latest statistics show his characterization. Britain recorded a record 62,322 infections on Wednesday, the second consecutive day of new case numbers, and 1,041 deaths, the first day the number has been above 1,000 since April. 77,346 people died in Britain from the coronavirus, the highest death toll in Europe.
More frightening than the total numbers are the statistics per capita: one person out of 50 was infected with the virus in England between 27 December and 2 January, the government estimated. In London, the center of an outbreak fueled by a new, fast-moving variant, one in 30 is infected.
The sense of crisis is so great that the organizers of a weekly ritual of applause for the British National Health Service, which began in March and lasts ten weeks, have announced that they will start the practice.
Limited to their homes, with the days getting colder, and weeks, if not months of lock-up ahead, some Britons stuck to the end of the tunnel in the light of a vaccine.
“The only reason I go through it is because I think I’m outside when the sun comes out,” said Chris Barkley, 36, a lawyer living in east London. He added that many Britons were at the end of their capture and that the government could not dangle the deployment as it had its test-and-detection system.
“I don’t think people have much left,” he said.
The task of tackling the pandemic was “a poisoned chalice”, said his friend Sean McEleney, 33, a teacher. He noted that many countries are struggling.
Britain is now engaged in a brutal race between soaring infections and the implementation of a mass point program. Mr. Johnson has confirmed an ambitious goal to vaccinate 13.9 million of the country’s most vulnerable people – residents of old age homes and all over the age of 70 – by mid-February. According to him, the protection of the people is the key to unlocking some of these restrictions.
The purpose of mr. Johnson recalled one that backed his government in April, when he promised to test 100,000 people a day by the end of the month. Britain reached the goal, but immediately sank under it in the days that followed. It was a precedent for over-promise and submission that plagued the handling of the crisis.
Johnson’s chaotic approach to reopening schools is another example. After Johnson insisted that many children return to the classrooms after the winter break on Monday, he reversed the decision after just one day – a move that upset millions of parents, pupils and teachers.
On Wednesday, the controversial secretary of education, Gavin Williamson, announced that the government would cancel the A levels, the exams used for university placement, and other tests for younger students. Last summer, the government started a firestorm when a computer algorithm was used to award marks to students after the exam was canceled during the first closing.
This year, Mr. Williamson said he would award teachers degrees, adding that he would “trust teachers rather than algorithms.”
While the criticism continued, the extent of the challenge dampened the criticism within Johnson’s Conservative party. Previous restrictions were resisted by a caucus of more than 50 skeptics who were concerned about its impact on the economy, the violation of individual freedoms and the impact on the mental health of people.
But in parliament, Johnson called Mr. Wednesday dismissed complaints from a handful of conservative critics, including one lawmaker, Desmond Swayne, who complained that coronavirus restrictions were ‘pettifogging malice’, a description designed to emphasize the small nature of the rules.
“Pettifogging, yes – malicious, no,” replied a gloomy but clumsy Mr. Johnson.
With the new variant of the virus pushing British hospitals near their breaking point, there is a limited appetite for rebellion, even among the most stubborn skeptics of the Conservative party.
“In the short term, they are silent and their criticism has been drowned out by events,” said Steven Fielding, a professor of political history at the University of Nottingham. “Right now he has a free hand thanks to the pandemic.”
Mr. Fielding added: ‘We are in the same area as World War II in terms of the logistical challenges facing the government. It’s a crisis, no two ways about it, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. ‘
While Johnson’s personal assessments have suffered in the course of the pandemic, opinion polls put the Conservatives on an equal footing with the Labor Party in general, despite the multiple setbacks over the past nine months.
Despite all the accusations of confusion and reversal of the policy, internal criticism of Mr. Johnson is generally muted with hope that rests on an efficient deployment of the vaccine. In fact, there has been just as much grumbling about the accommodating approach of Mr. Starmer.
The Labor leader methodically exposed the government’s failures for months, building the case that he would be a more capable leader. But he is also at risk of being seen playing party politics during a pandemic, when most voters have a limited tolerance for political strife.
“Within the Labor Party, there is a silent frustration over his approach,” he said. Fielding said. “He was clearly successful, but for some party members now is the time to put in the knife and it does not look like he is prepared to do so.”
Isabella Kwai reported.