Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Boris Johnson faces rebellion over schools' return

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Have you dared look back at photos taken before all this began? While some melancholy souls have been sharing their #lastnormalphoto of pre-virus life, others are determined to kick-start the post-virus age asap – flocking to crowded parks and beaches over the weekend. The national consensus over lockdown seems to have well and truly broken down, with some English regions now rebelling over the re-opening of schools. Can Boris Johnson put the consensus back together again? It won’t be easy. The latest polling shows a growing frustration with his government’s handling of the crisis. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

Monday sees the return of the delayed Immigration Bill to the Commons for its second reading, with some Tory backbenchers pressing home secretary Priti Patel to soften measures designed to end free movement from January. Health secretary Matt Hancock will be making a statement in the Commons, when he can be expected to face challenges about his claim to have placed a “protective ring” around care homes. And chancellor Rishi Sunak will answer MPs’ questions about the future of the Treasury’s support for business and workers.

Daily briefing

DOSE OF OPTIMISM: Could a coronavirus jab be rolled out by the autumn? Business secretary Alok Sharma told us the government is providing an additional £84m to boost vaccine research at Oxford University and Imperial College London – claiming the work could make 30 million doses available by September. Is the public inclined to believe ministers’ rose-tinted, big-number estimates anymore? The latest YouGov poll for Sky News shows more people (49 per cent) think the government is doing badly than think it’s doing well (47 per cent) for the first time since the pandemic began. The Sunday Times reported on tensions between the PM and his cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill, and the “growing fear” among top civil servants that Johnson’s team is “lining up fall guys for the inevitable public inquiry”.

NORTHERN REBELLION: Labour mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has called for the government to publish the ‘R’ rate of infection for different parts of the country. He argued the regions were not consulted on lockdown easing options and warned of “even greater fracturing of national unity” ahead. It came as Liverpool and Hartlepool councils both said their schools would definitely not reopen on 1 June, as per government wishes. Imploring councils, unions and teachers to please think of the children, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove admitted on The Andrew Marr Show that “you can never eliminate risk” – just moments after saying he could “guarantee” that teachers going back to school would be safe. The World Health Organisation’s chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said children didn’t appear to be at great risk of getting ill, but said there was less data on the role they play in spreading the coronavirus.

TRUTH TRACING: Gove said the target for an “army” of 18,000 contact tracers has almost be met, claiming 17,200 people had been signed up. Yet the government appears to have shifted the timetable to get the contact-tracing programme up and running, saying it would be in place by “the beginning of June” (having initially aimed for “mid-May”). Care homes questions aren’t going away. Labour has compiled a detailed dossier on the government’s handling of the crisis in residential homes. Shadow social care minister Liz Kendall said it showed the strategy had been “slow, confused and chaotic”. Shadow employment rights secretary Andy McDonald, meanwhile, has written to business secretary Alok Sharma to warn of holes in the government advice to firms – claiming official guidance has “watered down” expectations on protective equipment for workers.

MAGIC MOMENTS: The current US president has been hard at work nursing his grievance with his predecessor. Donald Trump told reporters Barack Obama had been “an incompetent president … grossly incompetent”. It followed Obama’s address to graduates of historically black colleges and universities in which he said the country was “so screwed up” and claimed many officials in the Trump administration “aren’t even pretending to be in charge”. Eric Trump, meanwhile, said that after the 2020 election the pandemic will “magically all of a sudden go away and disappear”. The Trump scion was trying to make the point Democrats would suddenly be in favour of reopening the economy.

BURN OUT, FADE AWAY? The coronavirus could “burn out naturally before any vaccine is developed”, according to a former leading figure in the World Health Organisation. “We are seeing a roughly similar pattern everywhere – I suspect we have more immunity than estimated,” said Professor Karol Sikora, who previously directed the WHO’s cancer programme. “We need to keep slowing the virus, but it could be petering out by itself.” Elsewhere, a coalition of 62 nations is expected to back a joint call by Australia and the EU for an independent probe into the origins of the outbreak. It comes ahead of a two-day virtual annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO, starting today.

EASING DOES IT: India has extended its nearly two-month-old lockdown by another two weeks – but the government said some restrictions would be eased now to help boost economic activity. Shops can open to a limited number of customers, while private cars and buses can now operate again. But metro rail services remain shut, as do schools, colleges and places of religious worship. In Europe, Italy reopens bars, restaurants and hairdressers again today, while Spain is lifting some restrictions on meet-ups. From today people outside of Madrid and Barcelona are free to gather in groups of up to 10.

On the record

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing.”

Barack Obama on the Trump administration.

From the Twitterati

“Michael Gove on Marr – a masterclass in blame-shifting, obfuscation, weasel-words and evasion – and with his insulting suggestion that teachers don’t care about their students, a heavy dollop of emotional blackmail too.”

Green MP Caroline Lucas isn’t buying Gove’s return-to-school entreaties...

“Somehow the Tories have forgotten how much teachers hated Michael Gove. They’ve rewritten history to make him a much beloved and expert education minister. Teachers don’t have memories that short.”

…and Professor Paul Bernal doesn’t think teachers will buy it either.

Essential reading

Andrew Grice, The Independent: Michael Gove can’t project a clear coronavirus message – no wonder the public is losing faith

Michael Heseltine, The Independent: We must extend the Brexit trade negotiations – adding uncertainty is unforgiveable

Nesrine Malik, The Guardian: There is revolution in the air, but history shows the old order will fight back

Charles M. Blow, The New York Times: Obama lives in Trump’s head

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