Boris Johnson says UK past coronavirus peak and ‘on downward slope’

PM says he will set out plans to restart the economy next week

Boris Johnson has told Britain to wait another week for an exit strategy from lockdown, despite declaring for the first time that the country has passed the peak of the coronavirus pandemic and is “on the downward slope”.

The prime minister came under fire for claiming his approach to the crisis had succeeded in “avoiding the tragedy” seen elsewhere in the world.

The latest death toll of 26,771 – up 674 in a day – puts the UK potentially on track to be the worst-hit nation in Europe.

He was accused by one Labour MP of living in a “fantasy land” after he stated that it was a mark of the success of Britain’s “massive collective effort” that it had avoided “an uncontrollable and catastrophic epidemic where the reasonable worst case scenario was 500,000 deaths”.

The UK’s experience had been like passing through “some huge Alpine tunnel” to avoid having to go over a vast peak towering above it, he said.

Mr Johnson’s first appearance at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing since recovering from the disease came four days after he promised to set out his plans to refine economic and social restrictions “in the coming days”.

But in a sign of caution at the top of government at the perils of moving too soon, he said that a comprehensive “roadmap” to restart the economy and send children back to school would now not be unveiled until next week. He made clear that any changes will be introduced gradually.

Any announcement is expected on 7 May, the scheduled deadline for a six-week review of lockdown measures.

Mr Johnson said the plan would set out the options for action, but the actual timing of individual measures would be driven by the development of the outbreak. He said he recognised that the frustration and mental anguish of staying home meant it was “urgent for us now to begin to come out of lockdown” while suppressing the disease.

In a significant U-turn after playing down the value of members of the public wearing masks, he said that face coverings “will be useful both for epidemiological reasons but also for giving people confidence they can go back to work” as the UK emerges from lockdown.

Insisting that social distancing restrictions will be lifted only when scientists are confident this will not cause a resurgence of the disease that could overwhelm the NHS, Mr Johnson said: “We have come through the peak … and we can now see the sunlight and pasture ahead of us.

“And so it is vital that we do not now lose control and run slap into a second and even bigger mountain.”

Mr Johnson claimed that the fact that the NHS has at no point run out of intensive care beds and ventilators showed that Britain has “so far succeeded in the first and most important task we set ourselves as a nation – to avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world”.

But his comments sparked anger and disbelief as official figures showed that the UK death toll is behind only those of the USA and Italy.

Labour frontbencher Bill Esterson said: “We were supposed to learn from what went wrong in Italy so we could avoid it happening here. Now the number of deaths in the UK is only 1,000 behind Italy. How on earth is it that Johnson seems to think his government’s approach has been some kind of success?”

And backbench MP Catherine McKinnell said: “This government talk a lot about following the science. Well, this claim does not stand up to scientific scrutiny on any measure.”

Palliative care doctor and author Rachel Clarke tweeted: “Did Boris Johnson seriously just say this?

“I’m objecting to the stone-deaf insensitivity of characterising a shattering death toll, with all the grief and pain that entails, as somehow ‘not’ a tragedy because it’s below 500,000 deaths.”

ITV news anchorman Piers Morgan voiced incredulity at the PM’s comments, tweeting: “This is Boris Johnson’s idea of ‘success’ and shows we’ve ‘avoided the tragedy that engulfed the world’? Wow.”

Mr Johnson insisted it was too early to make comparisons with other countries and insisted that he believes the UK did the “right thing at the right time”.

He hinted at a programme of borrowing-fuelled investment to help Britain’s battered economy bounce back from the crisis, saying that austerity will “certainly not be part of our approach”.

On the deadline for meeting health secretary Matt Hancock’s target of 100,000 tests, Mr Johnson announced that the latest daily total – covering Wednesday – came to 81,611, far and away the highest figure achieved so far.

Earlier in the day, cabinet minister Robert Buckland appeared to accept that Mr Hancock’s target would be missed, but Downing Street insisted the government had not given up hope of hitting it when the daily statistics are unveiled on Friday.

Labour leader Keir Starmer, who was briefed by phone by the prime minister on Wednesday, said the commitment to outline an exit strategy was “a step in the right direction”.

“I’ve been calling on the prime minister to have a plan for the next stage and exit strategy,” said Starmer. “We’ve been pushing hard on that in the last week or two.

“The prime minister has now said he’s going to have a plan next week.

“So I think that shows that we were right to challenge on it, and I’m pleased that we’re going to see a plan. We’ll look at it when we see it.”

Acting Liberal Democrat co-leader Ed Davey welcomed Mr Johnson’s announcement that the UK was past the peak.

But he added: “The next step out of this crisis must be a strategy of test, trace and isolate on a huge scale and it’s worrying that the UK is still far behind other countries on testing rates.”

Mr Johnson acknowledged “frustrations” in expanding the number of coronavirus tests and getting sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE).

“We’re determined urgently and in particular to overcome those challenges that have in the last few weeks been so knotty and so infuriating,” the prime minister said.

“I’m not going to minimise the logistical problems we face in getting the right protective gear to the right people at the right time, both in the NHS and in care homes.

“Or the frustrations that we’ve experienced in expanding the numbers of tests.

“But what I can tell you is that everyone responsible for tackling these problems, whether in government or the NHS or Public Health England or in local authorities, we’re throwing everything at it, heart and soul, night and day, to get it right – and we will get it right and we’re making huge progress.”

Announcing the daily death toll, he said: “Families every day are continuing to lose loved ones before their time, we grieve for them and with them, but as we grieve, we are strengthened in our resolve to defeat this virus to get this whole country back to health, back on its feet.”