Boris Johnson escapes wrath of his own backbenchers as he moves forward with social distancing gamble

For all the criticism of the PM’s handling of the crisis, he is managing this part quite well, writes John Rentoul

The Tory leader faces MPs in the Commons yesterday (PA)

Boris Johnson stood to speak in the House of Commons, less worried about his opponent in front of him than about the row of fitfully active volcanoes on the benches behind him.

He seemed to have the parliamentary balancing act about right. He was helped by Keir Starmer, who reverted rather abruptly to the “constructive” bit of constructive opposition when it came to the easing of lockdown. He wanted to study the details and he had some questions, but, “overall, I welcome this statement”, said the Labour leader.

This is interesting, because the opinion polls suggest the public is still fearful about reducing the two-metre guideline. But public opinion may be shifting towards saving jobs, as the redundancy notices start to go out, and Starmer may want to avoid being left on the wrong side of the voters. Later, Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, struck a cautionary tone during the last of the daily briefings – which was taken by the prime minister. But he spoke of the “balance of risks” and did not undermine Johnson’s message.

So it was the ranks of the dispossessed MPs on his own side that the prime minister had to worry about during his initial announcement. The trouble for him is that he took over from a prime minister of his own party, and purged the higher ranks of government so he could present himself as nothing to do with the ghastly weakness and indecision of the previous administration. That means there are a lot of the old regime haunting him from the back benches.

When he took over from Theresa May, Johnson cleared out 16 of the 23 members of the full cabinet. Four of them were then cleared out of parliament by the general election, but the rest are still there, and he has continued to make new enemies at a steady rate, starting with his former chancellor of the exchequer and working down.

So answering questions from his own party in the Commons yesterday was like playing Minesweeper: Johnson had no idea which of his supposed colleagues might explode a short distance away from him.

Yet none of the explosives seemed primed. Greg Clark, the former business secretary, stood up and asked a gentle question about cricket. Damian Green, once in effect May’s deputy prime minister, asked Johnson to make sure that the guidance he set out was clear.

Liam Fox, the Eurosceptic former international trade secretary, stood up. He had supported Jeremy Hunt in the Tory leadership campaign and has previously used his position as one of the few MPs who knows something about trade negotiations to take Johnson’s bluff optimism to pieces. Even he was mildness itself, asking the prime minister to proceed cautiously, to avoid a second wave and a second lockdown.

Unsurprisingly, Johnson was happy to give him the reassurance he sought. Then came a question from Andrea Leadsom, another Brexiteer and once upon a time Johnson’s putative chancellor. She asked for more support for parents of new-born babies, some of whom are struggling, “as he might be”. Johnson almost blushed and said, “I’m personally coping fine actually”, and talked about early years childcare, instead of the face-to-face health-visitor support that Leadsom was asking about.

It was left to Graham Brady, then, to offer the only real note of dissent. He is the leader of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, the executive of which has been a caldera of fury at the missteps of the No 10 operation.

Some of its members even briefly considered, at the height of the Dominic Cummings lockdown-breach embarrassment, reopening all that business about sending letters to him to request a new leadership election. Brady himself has been most critical of the government’s failure to do enough to get the economy going again.

But because Johnson was finally easing the lockdown, he had to praise him: “I strongly endorse the move to relying on the common sense and responsibility of the British people.” He went on to attack the 14-day quarantine for travellers, which “is not common sense when it applies to countries which are entirely safe and have no coronavirus”, and demanded air bridges by 4 July.

By then the prime minister knew he was safe. Some MPs – mostly in the opposition parties – think he is unlocking the lockdown too quickly. Some MPs – mostly on his own side – think he is doing it too slowly. But because he is moving in what they think is the right direction, their criticism was muted.

For all the criticism of Johnson’s handling of the crisis, he has managed this part quite well.