The PM’S dilemma is clear for all to see

There was something of the old Boris Johnson on show yesterday on the second day of the Conservative Party conference, an annual gathering this year conducted remotely. Had it not been for the pandemic, this would have been a triumphant week for the Prime Minister, basking in the adulation of a party grateful for the 80-seat Commons majority he delivered last December.

Instead, he is grappling with one of the great crises of modern times with, ironically, much of the most vociferous criticism of his strategy coming from within his own ranks. Interviewed at length by Andrew Marr on the BBC, Mr Johnson answered his detractors not by denouncing them but agreeing with them. You would have to be crazy to want to restrict the liberty of the British people in the way that he had since March, he said. No one wanted to do this and he sympathised with those who felt frustrated, upset or resentful.

Were he not Prime Minister, Mr Johnson would instinctively be on the side of the sceptics. But he is the leader of the Government and it falls to him, and his colleagues, to make a judgment as to the right balance between public health and other considerations, such as the economy and the wider health implications of prioritising Covid over almost all other ailments.

Unaccompanied by medical advisers or burdened with doom-laden charts, Mr Johnson gave a far more revealing sense of the struggle within himself to get this balance right. He will be judged by whether he has or not. It is at least arguable that too much emphasis is given to public health and not enough to the long-term impact of these measures on the country.

The Prime Minister said he has no choice, given the scientific advice he receives, and challenged anyone to come up with an alternative approach. But there are eminent scientists who do not accept the binary choice – lockdowns or “let rip” – who should be included in this discussion.

We need to be “fearless but exercise common sense”, Mr Johnson said, declaring himself “fitter than two butcher’s dogs”. While he regarded excessive “buoyancy and élan” as inappropriate in the circumstances, the country needed to be given hope that there was a way through this. There was the authentic reminder of the optimism that endeared him to the electorate. He will need to hang on to it in the dark months ahead.