The mood in parliament has changed dramatically – thanks to coronavirus

Boris Johnson wanted his election victory to usher in a period of optimism – instead it is one of anxiety, writes Andrew Woodcock

A man wearing a protective face mask outside the Houses of Parliament (Reuters)

Something is stalking the Palace of Westminster and its name is coronavirus.

Although ministers and spokespeople continue to insist that there are no plans yet to shut parliament down, chatter in the tearooms is of little else, with few believing that the doors can remain open indefinitely.

News that health minister Nadine Dorries had become the first MP diagnosed with Covid-19 really brought the issue home to many in Westminster.

And the more they pondered the outbreak, the more they realised that Pugin’s Gothic pile by the Thames – which usually feels like a heavily guarded fortress offering protection from the real world – is actually a perfect breeding-ground for an infection of this kind.

With thousands of people thronging its corridors and committee rooms every day, MPs squeezed together on the green benches and in the voting lobbies, and shuttling each weekend to constituencies in literally every corner of the country, the opportunities for the exchange of germs are rife.

In practical terms, little has changed so far in day-to-day life at Westminster. New hand-sanitiser dispensers have popped up around the estate, people are a little less ready to shake hands and queues of people wanting to clean their hands have begun forming at the sinks in washrooms.

But the mood has changed fundamentally.

The quarrels of recent years over Brexit and austerity are still rumbling away, but they have been completely overshadowed by the existential threat of disease and death.

Even a paradigm-shifting Budget which saw Rishi Sunak dump a decade of belt-tightening and splash out billions in new spending faded from the headlines rapidly as thoughts returned to Covid-19.

Fierce partisanship has been replaced to a great degree by a new sobriety and determination to pull together to help the country get through this challenge.

And that mood could last through the spring and summer, whether parliament is closed or not and whether more MPs go down with the disease, as experts predict that the peak of the outbreak is still two or three months away.

Boris Johnson wanted his election victory to usher in a period of optimism, openness and dynamism. Instead, he has found it dominated by a sense of dread and anxiety.

The showman has been forced to display a serious face to the world, and it has shaped the beginning of his premiership. Events over the next few weeks will determine whether it defines his place in history.