Coronavirus: Tory grandees tell Boris Johnson: it’s time to ease lockdown

A pincer movement of Tory donors and ministers is putting Boris Johnson under concerted pressure to ease the lockdown.

Boris Johnson will return to work on Monday to face the strongest challenge yet to lift the social restrictions imposed on the public five weeks ago. Picture: AFP

A pincer movement of Conservative Party donors, cabinet ministers and senior Tory backbenchers is putting UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson under concerted pressure to ease the lockdown.

Mr Johnson will return to work on Monday to face the strongest challenge yet to lift the social ­restrictions imposed on the public almost five weeks ago.

The backlash follows Downing Street briefings last week that Mr Johnson was cautious about easing the lockdown and would “not be rushing to lift measures” after nearly losing his own life to the virus.

Six Tory donors are calling on Mr Johnson to ease the restrictions amid signs the public is growing weary. Their intervention came as Britain’s coronavirus death toll rose by 813 to pass 20,000 on Saturday — less than a month after a senior health official said a total below that number would be a “good result”.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has spoken to the National Police Chiefs’ Council about the possibility of increasing on-the-spot fines for breaking social-distancing rules as evidence emerged that the public were tired of it.

Billionaire financier Michael Spencer, a big donor to Mr Johnson’s leadership campaign last year, said: “We should start loosening up as soon as we reasonably can and allow the economy to start moving forward. We should really begin to offer a narrative of how and when it’s going to stop.”

Steve Morgan, the former boss of the builder Redrow, who gave £1m to the Conservatives’ election campaign, said: “We’re actually in danger that the medicine — if you want to call the lockdown that — is more harmful than the cure.

“I’m strongly in favour of getting the country back to work. This is not about profit; this is about saving the country from going bankrupt, from mass unemployment, from businesses going bust, people losing their livelihoods and homes.”

Billionaire Peter Hargreaves, who also gave £1m to the Conservatives’ election war chest, said an extended lockdown would “do more harm to people’s health by putting them out of work and ruining their businesses”.

Henry Angest, the millionaire banker who donated £500,000 to the Tories’ general election campaign, said: “We have to do something. The economy is absolutely tanking and we just can’t go on having a blank sheet.”

The chorus of disapproval from the donors who bankroll the party has been echoed by three cabinet ministers who are concerned about tens of thousands of businesses collapsing, inflicting irreparable damage on the economy.

The first cabinet minister said: “I don’t think the public will be able to take much more of this.”

A second added: “I don’t know anyone in the cabinet who doesn’t want the lockdown eased as soon as possible. If the public are beginning to give up on it, then nobody wants to see it enforced through compulsion rather than consent.”

A third cabinet minister said the lockdown may cause more people to die of preventable deaths than the coronavirus, adding: “I do not think waiting for hospital deaths to get to near zero is the ­answer.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer added to the pressure on Mr Johnson.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Sir Kier said the government risked “falling behind the rest of the world” by refusing to discuss an exit strategy to the lockdown.

Former Tory business secretary Andrea Leadsom stressed the need for businesses to be given as much prior notice as possible ahead of the lockdown being lifted.

The revolt comes amid growing signs the lockdown is being flouted by the public. Data from tech giant Apple, which tracks how far ­people are travelling, suggests the public are moving about more than they were in mid-March.

Walking has jumped from 30 per cent of pre-lockdown levels at the end of last month to 50 per cent last week. There are also growing fears that a prolonged lockdown will trigger civil unrest and protests, such as those seen in France and the US.

The Sunday Times