LONDON – For months, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was whipped by pandemic forces, caught between an opposition that accused him of acting too late and lawmakers in his own party who complained that he had gone too far in blocking the British economy to contain the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, however, Johnson went to Parliament with some of his toughest measures, and the unruly chamber seats were silent. The public health crisis facing Britain is so dire that it has temporarily paralyzed the political debates that have occurred since the virus first appeared in the country 11 months ago.
Johnson obtained overwhelming approval for legislation imposing a new national blockade, which he said could remain in effect until March 31, although it is possible that some of the measures could be relaxed before that.
“As was the case last spring, our exit from the blocking cocoon will not be a big bang, but a gradual deployment,” Johnson said in Parliament, adding that the government would lift the restrictions “if it were no longer considered necessary to limit the transmission of virus. ”
Opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer supported his party in the measures, only regretting that Johnson did not act more quickly. Mr. Starmer called the current period “the darkest moment of the pandemic”.
The latest statistics confirm its characterization. Britain recorded a record 62,322 infections on Wednesday, the second consecutive day of new record numbers of cases, and 1,041 deaths, the first day that number has exceeded 1,000 since April. In all, 77,346 people died of coronavirus in Britain, the highest number of deaths in Europe.
More frightening than the aggregate numbers are per capita statistics: one person in 50 was infected with the virus in England between December 27 and January 2, the government estimated. In London, the epicenter of an outbreak fueled by a new rapidly transmissible variant, one in 30 has been infected.
The feeling of crisis is so great that the organizers of a weekly clapping ritual for Britain’s National Health Service, which began in March and lasted 10 weeks, announced that they would restart the practice.
Confined to their homes, with days getting colder and weeks, if not months of confinement extending, some Britons clung to the light of a vaccine at the end of the tunnel.
“The only reason I’m going is because I’m betting on going out when the sun comes up,” said Chris Barkley, 36, a lawyer who lives in East London. He added that many Britons were at the end of their ties and the government could not hinder implementation, as it had its testing and tracking system.
“I don’t think people have much left in them,” he said.
The task of dealing with the pandemic was “a poisoned cup,” said his friend, Sean McEleney, 33, a professor, who noted that many countries were struggling.
Britain is now engaged in a dark race between triggered infections and the launch of a mass vaccination program. Johnson reaffirmed an ambitious goal of vaccinating 13.9 million of the country’s most vulnerable people – nursing home residents and everyone else over the age of 70 – by mid-February. Protecting these people, he said, was the key to unlocking some of these restrictions.
Johnson’s goal was reminiscent of one of his government in April, when he promised to test 100,000 people a day by the end of that month. Britain achieved that goal, but it soon fell below it in the following days – setting a precedent for exaggerated and insufficient promises, which hampered the treatment of the crisis.
Johnson’s chaotic approach to reopening schools is another example. After insisting that many children would return to classrooms on Monday after the winter break, Johnson reversed that decision after just one day – a change that has upset millions of parents, students and teachers.
On Wednesday, the troubled education secretary, Gavin Williamson, announced that the government would cancel levels A, the exams used for college placement and other tests for younger students. Last summer, the government triggered a storm when it used a computer algorithm to grade students after exams were canceled during the first block.
This year, Williamson said, teachers assigned grades, adding that he “will trust teachers, rather than algorithms”.
While criticism continues to creep in, the scale of the challenge has dampened criticism from within Johnson’s Conservative Party. The previous restrictions were resisted by a caucus of more than 50 skeptics concerned with their impact on the economy, violation of individual freedoms and the effect on people’s mental health.
But in Parliament on Wednesday, Johnson dismissed the complaints of a handful of conservative critics, including a lawmaker, Desmond Swayne, who complained that restrictions on coronavirus represented “petty evil”, a description designed to emphasize the petty nature of the rules .
“Pettifogging, yes – malicious, no,” replied a dark but serene Mr. Johnson.
With the new variant of the virus pushing British hospitals close to their breaking point, appetite for rebellion is limited, even among the Conservative Party’s most obstinate skeptics.
“In the short term, they are silent and their criticism has been drowned out by events,” said Steven Fielding, professor of political history at the University of Nottingham. “For now, he is free thanks to the pandemic.”
Mr. Fielding added: “We are in the same type of territory as World War II in terms of the logistical challenges that the government faces. This is a crisis, there are no two ways to resolve it, and it will get worse before it gets better. “
Although Johnson’s personal assessments have suffered throughout the pandemic, opinion polls generally put conservatives on an equal footing with the Labor Party, despite multiple setbacks over the past nine months.
Despite all the accusations of hesitation and policy reversals, internal criticisms of Mr. Johnson have generally been silenced with the hope of an efficient launch of the vaccine. In fact, there are many complaints among the labor ranks about Starmer’s accommodative approach.
The labor leader spent months methodically exposing the government’s failures, building the case that he would be a more competent leader. But he is also aware of the risk of being seen doing party politics during a pandemic, when most voters have limited tolerance for political fights.
“Within the Labor Party, there is quiet frustration with his approach,” said Fielding. “He is clearly succeeding, but for some members of the party, now is the time to put the knife down and he doesn’t seem willing to do that.”
Isabella Kwai contributed reporting.