Friday, June 5, the United Kingdom broke a new and sad record, passing the mark of 40,000 deaths from the Covid-19 (tested positive) officially counted in the country (at 40,261). In reality, it is more like 62,000 disappearances, according to the National Statistics Office, which maintains the register of excess deaths, the method considered the most relevant by epidemiologists. Another bad news: the rate of transmission of the virus is still close to 1 in the country and even higher than 1 in the north-west of England.
Two days earlier, on June 3, from the House of Commons, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had nevertheless bravely launched that he was " proud " of his government's strategy: "We have successfully protected our hospital system, the number of deaths is decreasing and the common sense of the British people will continue to fight the virus. "
Labor and Scottish separatists from the SNP immediately rushed into the breach, denouncing too late confinement (March 23) a disorderly and too rapid deconfinement. "But who has been in control of this crisis so far? ", launched Labor leader Keir Starmer, mocking an awkward title from the Telegraph, the newspaper of the conservative right, which the same morning announced in "one": “Boris Johnson regains control of the coronavirus strategy”…
Failed containment
More worrying for a Prime Minister with a comfortable majority in the House of Commons (80 seats): the Conservative ranks no longer hesitate to speak out against their choices. Especially in the last two weeks, during which Downing Street has had a number of failures. First of all, the Cummings affair is far from anecdotal. More than 40 Conservative MPs protested Johnson’s refusal to sanction his special adviser Dominic Cummings, the architect of his Brexit strategy, when he violated containment rules in April.
Heavyweights like Steve Baker, a leading Brexit lawyer or Lord Michael Heseltine, a moderate party figure, have called for the resignation of Mr. Cummings. Penny Mordaunt, former Secretary of State for Defense, still in the government of Boris Johnson, expressed concern that this episode would weaken "Essential health messages" of the government.
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