PM faces Cabinet revolt over Covid rules
Ministers threaten to ‘resist’ if restrictions are tightened further in move to Plan C
BORIS JOHNSON is facing his first major Cabinet revolt, with senior ministers pledging to “resist” a Plan C of further Covid-19 restrictions, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
A Cabinet source said that, in the absence of data showing the impact of omicron on hospitalisation and death rates, a series of senior ministers will block the “slippery slope” of further curbs. At least six Cabinet ministers are understood to have concerns that the Government is moving towards more draconian measures.
The warning came as senior sources said Downing Street had been “spooked” by data on the effectiveness of vaccines against the omicron variant, prompting fears that Mr Johnson could back more stringent restrictions as soon as this week.
By last night 65 Tory MPs had publicly indicated that they would refuse to support Mr Johnson’s Plan B, which was announced last week, in a series of votes on Tuesday. Many said they would vote against one or all of the measures.
One ministerial aide compared the state of the Conservative Party to the final months of Theresa May’s time in No10, when dozens of MPs and ministers, including Mr Johnson, lined up to denounce her Brexit policy. The MP said: “The mood has changed in a week. Even with Theresa it wasn’t this fast.” In other developments:
♦ Priti Patel’s parliamentary private secretary (PPS) told constituents that he was considering refusing to back the restrictions, amid claims that up to half a dozen ministerial aides could quit to oppose the measures.
♦ Another PPS said: “I feel this is the first step towards another lockdown.”
♦ Writing in The Telegraph, Sir Graham
Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, accuses the Government of a “dangerous assault on liberty”.
♦ In a separate article in this newspaper, Steve Baker, who has been helping to rally Tory rebels, suggests that Mr Johnson is no longer behaving like a Conservative prime minister, as he announces the relaunch of the Conservative Way Forward group to champion a smaller state and lower taxes.
♦ Senior Tories are worried that the fallout over the alleged illicit party in Downing Street last December could result in many Tory supporters failing to vote in this week’s North Shropshire by-election. “If we lose North Shropshire the letters [of no confidence] will go in, I’ve got no doubt,” an MP said.
Last night, Jamie Davies, Mr Johnson’s deputy spokesman, was accused of hypocrisy as he was unmasked as one of the officials joking about the No 10 party, having attended the event a day after warning the country to “abide by the rules”.
Yesterday, there was no sign of Downing Street backing down on the Plan B restrictions, which include vaccine passports, increased mask-wearing and compulsory jabs for NHS staff.
Sources insisted that the Government’s proposals accommodated MPs’ concerns by allowing unvaccinated people to enter nightclubs and other large venues by showing proof of a negative lateral flow test.
Senior sources said that Downing Street was now even more concerned about the omicron variant than before the Plan B proposals were presented to ministers on Wednesday morning.
One senior source said No 10 aides were “very spooked” about data that emerged on Friday which showed that having two doses of a vaccine appeared to offer significantly less defence against symptomatic infection from
‘I feel this is the first step towards another lockdown’
omicron than the delta variant. Another government source said the data had shown “a bigger difference between being double vaccinated and being boosted than we were expecting”.
The data have sent ministers scrambling to expand the rollout of third jabs. But Cabinet sources, government aides and senior MPs said that ministers and Tories in Parliament would not accept further measures until reliable data emerged showing the number of hospitalisations and deaths caused by the new variant. South African hospitals have reported “far milder” symptoms from omicron.
As speculation mounted over a possible Plan C, which could extend vaccine passport requirements to other venues and re-introduce 10-day isolation periods for contacts of Covid-19 cases, a Cabinet source said that ministers would not tolerate more measures later this week in the absence of clearer data
about the risks of omicron. “Certain Cabinet ministers” would be “a lot more robust” in the event of a push for further restrictions, the source said. “If we end up on the slippery slope where one week we’re doing one thing and the next we’re doing more, that is where a fair few of the Cabinet will resist.”
Another government source said that Downing Street and scientists were imposing restrictions “seemingly from nowhere – without any data whatsoever”.
Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, was said by multiple sources to be pushing for further restrictions. “He thinks what we’ve set out already won’t be enough and we will need to do more,” said a Whitehall source.
Amid growing talk about an attempt to unseat Mr Johnson, one senior Tory in the City described the Prime Minister as a cat with nine lives but insisted he had “only used up about five of them so far”. Others insisted he was “nearer to seven or eight”.
Discussing Tuesday’s potential rebellion, one PPS told The Telegraph that following anger over Mr Johnson’s handling of a series of scandals and domestic policies, “the truth is that the balance has now tipped. People are not going to do things for the sake of government jobs that aren’t going to be there in a year because there is going to be a leadership contest. I didn’t anticipate it coming this quickly”.
The MP added: “It’s quite hard to get people back from a place where they fundamentally don’t trust the [No10] operation.”
Yesterday Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, held a conference call in which he insisted no Plan C was under consideration. But he was accused of being over-cautious about the need for restrictions by some MPs after he admitted that he was only aware of six Covid19 patients in hospital with omicron.
A Downing Street source said: “We have said very clearly we’re not going to bring in more measures until we know more about the variant and have more data. We need to see the effect of Plan B.”
65
Conservative MPs who have indicated publicly that they are unwilling to back the Prime Minister’s Plan B measures in a vote