Boris Johnson has made the right call in delaying ‘freedom day’

It was the announcement Boris Johnson never wanted to make: a departure from his roadmap for ending coronavirus restrictions in England. Although he has not gone into reverse gear, he told a Downing Street press conference on Monday: “Now is the time to ease off the accelerator.”

The prime minister said it was a “very difficult choice” to delay the fourth and final step in the lifting of restrictions from 21 June to 19 July. But he had no alternative because of the worrying spread of the Delta variant first identified in India, which now accounts for 96 per cent of cases in the UK. Hospital admissions have risen by 50 per cent in a week, and by 61 per cent in the northwest. His scientific advisers had warned that thousands of preventable deaths would occur if step 4 went ahead as planned next week, with hospital admissions rising to a level not seen since the peak in March last year.

Ending all restrictions now would have made a nonsense of Mr Johnson’s “data, not dates” mantra. Two of his four tests have clearly not been met – on the risks of new variants, and of putting “unsustainable pressure” on the NHS.

In the race between the virus and the vaccine, the latter will eventually win. The four-week pause is a short-term setback that will produce long-term gains. The vaccination rollout is rightly being speeded up: all those over 40 will now receive their second dose after eight rather than 12 weeks; and by 19 July, two-thirds of adults in England will have been offered two doses, and all over-18s one dose.

The pause will be reviewed after two weeks in case the data by then shows that the restrictions could be lifted earlier than now proposed. In practice, that is very unlikely to happen.

Mr Johnson is “confident” and “determined” that the remaining curbs – including the wearing of masks, the one-metre rule, and advice to work from home – will be lifted on 19 July. But he cannot guarantee it, and events might yet force him to reconsider. More than 40,000 people could die from Covid this summer, even after the four-week delay, according to a paper submitted to the government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage).

Businesses including hospitality, night clubs (which must remain closed), the arts, travel and tourism, which had been hoping for a much-needed summer boost, have every right to feel aggrieved. The government has rubbed salt in the wound by not announcing any extra help for these sectors. It should think again. Although the successful furlough scheme runs until September, companies using it will have to contribute 10 per cent towards wages from next month. Many businesses have run up huge debts and will be unable to repay bills such as rent.

Some lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs will probably rebel on Wednesday when the Commons votes on extending restrictions. His critics say Mr Johnson should stop listening to the “siren voices” of the scientists. He would be better advised to ignore the siren voices on his party’s back benches. They make a lot of noise, but are not in tune with public opinion. The British people have been remarkably resilient in the way they have accepted the disruption to their daily lives, and now sense that the country is on the last lap of this race. Opinion polls show majority support for delaying “freedom day”.

While Mr Johnson has made the right call on the pause, he has only himself to blame for the paradox of his country having to live with more severe restrictions than some others whose vaccination programmes have been slower than the UK’s. The current surge in cases was undoubtedly made worse by a two-week delay in adding India to the UK’s red list for travel. It is an open secret that this was at least in part due to Mr Johnson’s reluctance to offend his Indian hosts ahead of his planned visit; as soon as his trip was postponed, India was added to the list. Meanwhile, an estimated 20,000 passengers arrived in the UK from India between 2 and 23 April.

As Keir Starmer has argued, delaying difficult decisions during the pandemic has become a “pattern of behaviour” by Mr Johnson. We can only hope he has finally learnt this painful and costly lesson.