More U-turns from Boris Johnson are likely as Priti Patel’s hardline stance clashes with the mood of the nation

The prime minister needs to move more quickly if he is to claim the mantle of a listening PM in tune with the desires of the people, writes Andrew Grice

Priti Patel is stuck in the old groove of headline-grabbing crackdowns (PRU/AFP/Getty)

Boris Johnson’s two U-turns in two days over conditions for NHS and social care workers are welcome, but they highlight the risk to his government of being dangerously out of touch with the country’s new mood.

First, Johnson included the families of care and NHS cleaner and porters in a bereavement scheme granting indefinite leave to remain in the UK to those of NHS workers who die from coronavirus. He hoped that would forestall demands to exempt foreign health and care workers from the £400-a-head surcharge for migrants who use the NHS, which was due to rise to £624 in October. But pressure for a rethink was rising after The Independent revealed the government’s hardline stance, and the concession made no difference.

Johnson’s spectacular volte face came just 24 hours after he doubled down on the controversial surcharge when Keir Starmer raised it at prime minister’s questions. The retreat was a coup for Starmer. It is not always obvious what bullets to fire at PMQs. A skilful opposition leader will stir up trouble on the government benches, and Starmer certainly did.

If Tory MPs had rallied behind Johnson, I doubt he would have backed down. But several demanded the surcharge be scrapped for NHS and care workers. With the 8pm Thursday clap for carers fast approaching, Johnson’s U-turn was best done quickly, and it was.

Priti Patel had given the game away as she pushed her Immigration Bill through the Commons this week. Although she acknowledged “our world has undoubtedly changed” since her post-Brexit points-based system was published in February, she then talked the language of the old politics rather than the new.

“We promised the British people that we would end free movement, take back control of our borders and restore trust in the immigration system,” she argued, adding rather bizarrely that “we are ending free movement to open Britain up to the world”.

The Vote Leave slogans fail to recognise that the public has moved on since 2016. Immigration has tumbled down people’s list of “most important issues”. Coronavirus has now shifted the dial further; while Patel is stuck in the old groove of headline-grabbing crackdowns, voters are more interested in fairness.

New polling by ICM for the British Future think tank shows the crisis has made two in three people value more the role of low-skilled workers in essential services. Only 9 per cent disagree. A majority (55 per cent) thinks social care workers should be exempt from the £25,600 salary threshold for migrants. Sunder Katwala, the think tank’s director, said: “The public is pragmatic about how to balance control and contribution. The government will need to strike the right balance too – and accept that people’s value isn’t determined by their salary level.”

For his own sake, Johnson must now overrule his home secretary again – by extending the free NHS visa extensions to NHS support staff and the social care workers the country desperately needs. Another cross-party revolt is brewing because these workers on the front line of this battle are still paying hundreds of pounds to renew their visas.

Care workers should also be exempt from the salary test for new migrants because, ludicrously, they are dubbed low-skilled. This crisis has surely taught us that they should be treated on a par with those in the NHS. They gulf between the two parts of what everyone accepts should be one integrated service cannot survive.

We will need migrants to fill the care sector’s 122,000 vacancies. Even if unemployment rises to 2 million, it is a pipe dream for ministers to think Britons will take up the £18,000-a-year jobs with backbreaking, 12-hour shifts.

Johnson would be wise to move quickly on “care visas” and the threshold, before MPs force him into another retreat. This week’s events are a reminder that, even with a commanding majority of 80, he is not immune to backbench pressure; MPs feel freer to rebel when there is a bigger majority, and are less likely to when a government has only a tiny majority. No wonder Tory whips ended the virtual parliament.

They want their backbenchers back at Westminster after next week’s Whitsun recess, so they can keep an eye on them. Johnson will come under strong backbench pressure to ease the lockdown more quickly to protect the economy, and to phase out Huawei’s role in the UK’s 5G network.

All governments hate U-turns, and caving in to the media’s clamour for them. Ministers think they make them look weak and wobbly. Probably voters care less about climb downs than politicians think, and are more interested in the final decision rather than what ministerial aides dismiss as “processology”.

The lesson from this week is that Johnson needs to move more quickly if he is to claim the mantle of a listening PM in tune with the new mood of the nation, rather than one running to catch up with it.