First lieutenant Dominic Raab at the helm in UK

Comments by Nick de Bois, former Tory MP and chief of staff to Mr Raab when he was Brexit Secretary

FOREIGN Secretary Dominic Raab is steering the good ship Great Britain while Prime Minister Boris Johnson is incapacitated after contracting Covid-19.

The Conservative politician steps up to lead Cabinet as First Secretary of State; should he too fall victim to coronavirus, next in line to take charge is Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Nick de Bois, former Tory MP for Enfield North and chief of staff to Mr Raab when he was Brexit Secretary, said: “It is important not to have a vacuum in leadership, so government carries on and decisions are not put on hold.”

The Prime Minister remained in St Thomas’ Hospital as CBN went to press. Yesterday morning he was still in intensive care but reported to be “stable” and “in good spirits”.

Nick said the vast machine of government would carry on following Mr Johnson’s wishes in the battle against the disease and where it was headed and the implications of the pandemic. “Despite the best efforts of the scientists to deal with it, every day is a prototype.

“Harold Wilson famously said in the sixties that a week is a long time in politics. Quite frankly, a couple of hours are a long time in politics at the moment.”

FRONTLINE

Speaking on Bay Radio via Skype from his Hertfordshire home, Nick said Mr Raab would chair meetings of the Cabinet. “They will basically seek to carry out the instructions...they were always about containment and keeping pressure off the NHS frontline workers.”

However, he said things would change should Mr Johnson become so incapacitated he was unable to communicate when decision making would fall back on the Foreign Secretary as ‘deputy’ leader.

“It moves to reflect the circumstances; at this stage what is needed is for Dominic Raab to chair Cabinet meetings and take decisions where appropriate in the full knowledge of what the Prime Minister wants.”

Nick, a regular visitor to the Costa Blanca, said the UK was initially placed under lockdown for a period of three weeks before a review was undertaken - although it appeared likely quarantine would be extended.

“I imagine that unless we have a disastrous weekend when people ignore the rules, it will be the same sort of lockdown,” he added.

STIR CRAZY

“If social distancing is not observed and more and more people start going out, Dominic Raab will have to make some decisions about the rules - but the focus is still very much ‘let’s make this work and see the benefits of lockdown before we take any new steps’.”

Nick said governments were “acutely aware” of rising tensions amongst a population confined at home during the emergency lockdown and sensitive to people’s patience wearing thin.

He said the “big strategy” to order what in Spain has become tagged as ‘house arrest’ was based on science to control the rate of infection.

“Governments are acutely aware - and we are beginning to see - certainly in particular in Spain, France and definitely Italy, there is actually civil resistance to lockdown,” he said. “And it’s becoming a difficult situation in some sectors in the UK.

“People are literally going stir crazy, and of course, you need public goodwill behind you in these difficult times and you can only do that lockdown for some time, if we are brutally honest.”