Is Boris Johnson preparing his arsenal of excuses over his government’s performance?

The question mark about quarantine policy is one of a number of setbacks for the prime minister in recent weeks, writes Andrew Woodcock

Boris Johnson has faced a backlash from MPs over the new travel restrictions (PA)

Boris Johnson’s plan for a quarantine on travellers arriving in the UK from next Monday has caused anger and bafflement in equal measure among MPs at Westminster.

Of course, a prime minister with a majority of 80 can generally push through whatever policies he likes – and Johnson didn’t even have to risk a vote on the issue, as it was implemented by a ministerial order known as a statutory instrument.

But the scale of dismay among Tory MPs – stretching to the highest ranks of former ministers including Theresa May and Liam Fox – suggests that had he been forced to put it to a vote, the PM might well have been subjected to his first Commons defeat since his landslide victory in December.

And lots of his MPs have been asking why this is the hill he chose to potentially die on. To many of them, mandatory self-isolation for 14 days for all arrivals in the UK seems a policy designed to rile some of their most important constituencies and deal a hammer blow to Conservative popularity.

While polls suggest it is supported by voters now, they wonder whether that will still be the case if families across the UK are forced to ditch plans for a holiday abroad this summer. Businesses – usually a reliable source of support for the party – are concerned about how they can bounce back from the lockdown-induced slump if their workers are unable to travel in and out of the country.

Meanwhile, the aviation sector, so important to Johnson’s dream of a hi-tech futuristic economy, is painting lurid pictures of doom if the travel-killing policy is allowed to stay in place too long.

MPs are asking themselves why so much grief is being created over a move which the scientists appear not to regard as necessary in the battle against coronavirus.

Even chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, standing next to Johnson in Downing Street, didn’t give it his endorsement. While diplomatically not criticising the quarantine, he made clear it is regarded as useful only when a country has low levels of the virus to block people from bringing it in from areas where it remains prevalent. It was a political decision to impose it now, he said.

Many have pointed out that, as the UK currently has one of the highest rates of Covid-19 infection in the world, it would make more sense for other countries to impose self-isolation on Brits arriving on their shores. And yet popular tourist destinations like Italy, Greece and Portugal have been making clear they are ready to welcome Britons.

The conclusion that many in Westminster have reached is that quarantine falls into the basket of “Wanting to be seen to be doing something”.

It’s an intervention in a fiendishly complex crisis which is easy to understand, appears decisive and can – hopefully – be triumphantly dropped within a few weeks as a demonstration of how well the government is doing in fending off the threat of a second peak.

Donald Trump has regularly batted off criticism of his woeful handling of the crisis in the US by boasting about his ban on flights from China, even though few experts believe it had much impact on the spread of the disease in the States. Could Johnson simply be building his arsenal of excuses for the inevitable inquiry into his own performance?

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor