Coronavirus: What are the views among ministers on lifting the lockdown?

Decision about when to ease restrictions will prove critical to the UK’s recovery, Lizzy Buchan says

Ghost town: a nearly deserted Oxford Street in London (Getty)

The UK has entered its fourth week of lockdown with no end in sight for the sweeping restrictions imposed on the nation to combat the coronavirus.

Boris Johnson originally promised a three-week review of the measures but the deadline expired on Monday without a clear sign of the government’s next move.

Behind the scenes, officials and ministers are trying to come up with a plan to allow the UK to return to a semblance of normality once the peak of the pandemic passes.

But the path out of the lockdown is far from simple.

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and Matt Hancock, the health secretary, are expected to provide modelling to ministers this week about the impact that the length and severity of the lockdown is likely to have on the economy and public health.

This modelling will inform the decisions taken by the cabinet about when and how to ease lockdown measures.

Ministers are understood to be waiting for the peak of the outbreak to pass before lifting restrictions amid fears the UK could be hit hard by a second wave of cases.

Within cabinet, there has been speculation about a divide between “hawks”, who want to end the lockdown in early May, and “doves” who favour a date towards the end of the month.

Sunak is reportedly one of the ministers who wants the lockdown lifted earlier due to concerns about the devastating hit to the economy and people’s livelihoods.

However, a source close to the chancellor said he remained deeply concerned about the health and wellbeing of the public.

“There are trade-offs to everything but until we can be certain that we can begin to lift lockdown in the safest possible way, all ministers are agreed that it should be kept in place to protect people’s health,” a source said.

On the other side, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is said to favour a more cautious approach, along with cabinet office minister Michael Gove.

But government sources played down the reports of a split, saying it was “nonsense” that ministers were only focused on a trade-off between the economy and public health.

“You would expect the chancellor to be focused on the detail of what’s happening in the economy and the health secretary to be focused on the health service,” one insider said.

“But it’s a complicated picture. There are public health implications from lockdown, as well as economic.”

Suggestions of dates for the lockdown to be lifted are “people sticking a finger in the wind”, the source said, adding that Britain was unlikely to lift its restrictions before Italy, which is the “canary in the coal mine”.

Scientific advisers will meet on Tuesday ahead of the formal review of the strict social distancing measures on Thursday, the deadline set out in law.

While it is unlikely that a decision will be made on when to begin easing the lockdown, the review may shed light on how the UK hopes to emerge from this crisis.