For the first time since becoming prime minister, Boris Johnson woke to universally negative newspaper headlines on Thursday morning — including from some titles usually supportive of his leadership.
After the government disclosed that just 2,000 National Health Service staff in England had been tested for coronavirus, the Daily Mail declared it was the “Statistic that humbles ministers”. Even the Daily Telegraph, where the prime minister spent most of his journalism career, splashed on virus testing, with the blunt headline “Questions without answers”.
Pressure is mounting on the prime minister as the Covid-19 crisis deepens. Some ministers and Conservative MPs are concerned whether Mr Johnson and his advisers have a strategy to exit the nationwide lockdown.
Tempers are fraying at the heart of government as it tries to increase testing, boost the supply of protective equipment to NHS staff, and secure more hospital ventilators. “It’s fucking tense in there,” said one Tory official, referring to the atmosphere in 10 Downing Street.
A blame game is already under way and, for ministers and their aides, the primary target of their ire is the civil service and what they see as the state machinery’s inability to deliver.
Over the past fortnight, the Downing Street political team has been increasingly at odds with Mark Sedwill, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, over how best to respond to the crisis.
One Number 10 insider said there was “growing anger” at Sir Mark’s alleged “inability to execute what needs to be done”.
Criticism of Sir Mark is also coming from within Whitehall. His lack of Treasury experience has been identified by several civil servants as a flaw in his skills-set given that the pandemic threatens to wreak huge economic damage.
“People are saying that Jeremy Heywood would have handled things differently,” said one senior civil servant. Lord Heywood, the former cabinet secretary who died in 2018, spent a big chunk of his career at the Treasury.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson, responding to the allegations against Sir Mark, said: “There is no truth to this. The cabinet secretary and PM are working in lockstep to protect the NHS and save lives during this period of unprecedented challenge.”
Gus O’Donnell, another former cabinet secretary, said “it’s always going to be difficult in Number 10 ” as Mr Johnson seeks to make trade-offs between “black and white” medical advice and wider considerations about society and the economy.
One cabinet minister closely involved in responding to the coronavirus outbreak said the leadership of key public bodies should also shoulder responsibility for the acute challenges.
“The NHS bureaucracy is something to behold. The conversations have been pure ‘Thick of It’,” said the minister, referring to the BBC political satire.
“They’re proud of their independence and won’t yield for anyone. The same is true for Public Health England: they’re the reason we don’t have more testing. They want to control the whole tedious process.” PHE is responsible for responding to public health emergencies.
The second target for blame for some Conservatives is those advising Mr Johnson, led by his chief aide Dominic Cummings.
One senior Tory insider described certain aides in Downing Street as “inexperienced, unpleasant and naive”.
“There is a lot of tension in there because they realised they are desperately trying to make up ground,” said the insider, claiming that Downing Street “wasted a lot of time” by previously accepting that Britons should be exposed to Covid-19 in order to gain “herd immunity”.
One Downing Street insider defended the Number 10 team: “This is an unprecedented global health crisis and everyone is focused fully on delivering the best possible response.”
Mr Johnson has sought to improve his communications during the crisis by bringing in Isaac Levido, the Australian political strategist who ran the Conservative election campaign last year, and Gabriel Milland, a close ally of Mr Cummings who works for the consultancy firm Public First.
But while the government has honed its message on social distancing, it is struggling to explain its strategy for exiting the lockdown.
Mr Johnson released a video on Wednesday evening, filmed while he is self-isolating after falling ill with Covid-19, in which he said testing was “how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle. This is how we will defeat it in the end”.
Ultimately, Mr Johnson risks becoming the target for blame. Several Tory MPs expressed concerns about his demeanour in the latest video. “I’m worried he is isolated, unwell and isn’t receiving good advice,” said one MP. Another said he looked “dire” and claimed there were fears in the parliamentary party that “he doesn’t have a grip”.
These concerns partly stem from how key decisions are made by a small group of ministers in daily meetings involving Mr Johnson, chancellor Rishi Sunak, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and health secretary Matt Hancock. These ministers are assisted by Sir Mark, chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance.
The arrangements have left many Tories feeling perplexed. One cabinet minister not involved in the daily meetings said she “didn’t have a clue” about the basis for the decisions. Another MP said: “It’s like a black box in Number 10. No one knows what is going on.”
Although Mr Johnson bears final responsibility for how the government deals with coronavirus, his high approval ratings in opinion polls suggest the public are giving him the benefit of the doubt for now.
“Everyone is trying their best and he’s not in trouble yet,” said one ally of Mr Johnson. “But the next few weeks are going to be very tough for all of us. It will get worse and he’ll need all the support he can get.”
