‘I’m full of beans, f it as a butcher’s dog... I’ll do some press-ups for you’
British prime minister says he’s in full health and is keen to show it
‘DO YOU want me to do some press-ups to show you how fit I am?’ With those words, the British prime minister hurls himself to the floor of his Downing Street office with an exuberance that has appeared to be absent in recent months.
Boris Johnson is keen to put paid to rumours about the state of his health since he was struck down by Covid-19 earlier this year. ‘Fit as a butcher’s dog… never felt better,’ is how the 56-year-old puts it, after months of debilitating political drama, a brush with death and the arrival of a new child.
Now Mr Johnson hopes to re-energise his frazzled-looking government by injecting billions of pounds into the British economy. He will use a major speech on Tuesday to set out his plan for a post-Covid economic recovery, and in the process start to define the nebulous political credo of ‘Johnsonism’.
The austerity of the David Cameron-George Osborne era is being shunned in favour of a splurge on
‘I’d turn around on my jog and see my detectives walking’
new hospitals, schools and housing developments, along with the acceleration of ‘shovel-ready’ infrastructure projects such as the major UK rail project High Speed 2 (HS2).
‘This has been a huge, huge shock to the country but we’re going to bounce back very well. We want to build our way back to health,’ says Mr Johnson, who hopes the speech will start to draw a line under relentless criticism of his government’s handling of the epidemic.
‘We are going to be doubling down on levelling up. If Covid was a lightning flash, we’re about to have the thunderclap of the economic consequences. We’re going to be ready. The lesson is to act fast and we’re going to make sure that we have plans to help people whose old jobs are not there any more to get the opportunities they need. We are absolutely not going back to the austerity of 10 years ago.’
Whispers about the prime minister’s health have been circulating since he returned to Downing Street after being in intensive care. There have been claims that he was sleeping during the day and struggling to juggle the demands of fighting the epidemic with the needs of his two-month-old son, Wilfred. All nonsense, he says.
He has returned to his pre-Covid routine of running at 6.30 every morning with Dilyn, the dog he shares with fiancée Carrie Symonds, although he admits that until a few days ago his jog was barely walking pace. ‘I would turn around and see my detectives just walking. But I want you to know that I am picking up speed now. They have detected in the last few days a notable turn of speed and they are starting to break into a mild trot themselves.’ Is he able to help Carrie with nappy changes and night feeds? Choosing his words carefully, he says: ‘I am both present and involved in a detailed way. All are doing very well, all are healthy and happy’.
Mr Johnson’s intensive care struggle deepened his ‘already profound admiration for the NHS’, he says – but also gave him ‘a sense of urgency’.
There is a growing body of evidence that many Covid victims – particularly those, like the PM, who ended up in intensive care – suffer long-term effects, including lung scarring and cognitive problems. But Mr Johnson counts himself as one of the fortunate ones.
‘We are still learning new things about the disease,’ he says. ‘Many, many people have made a very full and healthy recovery and I seem to be one of them.’
He might do press-ups but will he be ‘taking the knee’ in solidarity with the Black Lives Matters movement? As he does so often, he swerves a question with a joke: ‘I am more Woking than woke!’ he says, before adding quickly: ‘I prefer to talk about what we are doing positively. The Black Lives Matter campaign is extremely important because I do think a lot of people feel that they don’t have a chance to express their talents. A lot of people feel that there are barriers in their lives, and that goes for black and ethnic minority people across this country.’
The sketchy outlines of ‘Johnsonism’ are starting to appear, with Boris describing it as ‘the basic symmetry between creating a fantastic public sector platform of infrastructure, schools and technology, through which private enterprise and private genius can flourish. It’s about the balance.’
When England’s pubs and restaurants re-open on July 4, Boris will celebrate with a pint – but he won’t say where. ‘I won’t be blighting any hostelry with my impending presence.’
He dreads the prospect of having to lockdown the economy again if there is a second wave of the virus, and makes clear that, if scenes such as the crowds packed on to Bournemouth beach are repeated, he will shut down the towns affected. ‘I say to those people who are going out in large groups – you may think that you are immortal, that you won’t be a sufferer, but the bug you carry can kill your family and friends.’
The judgment on Mr Johnson’s performance will have to wait for the official inquiry, expected after the crisis has finally passed.
The impromptu gym session, seemed, by his standards, subdued – energy slightly dimmed – perhaps not surprising given the enormity of recent events.
He needs a summer holiday and he will be taking it in the UK.
‘Why go anywhere else?’
‘You may think you are immortal but the bug that you carry can kill’