Having coronavirus doesn't make Boris Johnson a national hero

Even if the prime minister wished to fulfil such a role, he carries far too much political baggage to do so

There is an insidious idea being put about that Boris Johnson is now some sort of paramount “national leader”, a Churchillian figure whose personal battle with coronavirus endows him with a unique status. To criticise him and his government, it is implied, has become a form of national betrayal.

Well, forgive me if I beg to differ. For a start, we have a perfectly good symbol of the nation and indeed its effort to defeat Covid-19: Elizabeth II. Respected, dignified and above all, apolitical, a politician could never fulfil such a role. In this crisis, the Queen has rightly been praised for her two moving and sensitively-pitched broadcasts.

By contrast, and to be plain, even if Johnson wished to fulfil such a role, he carries far too much political baggage to do so. Too many people have been appalled by his remarks for him to serve as a unifying figure. Single mums, gay people, Muslims, people of colour – there are few Johnson hasn’t offended over the course of his career. The scars of Brexit, too, are far from healed.

Johnson has tried to repair his deeply divisive image. He crafted a powerful broadcast of his own on his recovery from a terrifying experience, no doubt sincere. But his record and that the longer one of his party on funding the NHS and social care goes before him. It is not unworthy or unpatriotic to mention these barriers to acceptance of Johnson as a “national leader”. He is a political leader, same as every PM, and he cannot be placed beyond scrutiny or reproach. It is a disgrace that the government is resisting further parliamentary scrutiny right now. For now is when we can do something about it. Even Churchill had to face the Commons immediately after military setbacks.

I resent the attempts to make Johnson into my “national leader”, rather than just the current PM. It as if criticising the government is the same as giving aid and succour to an enemy in a real war – it isn’t. Coronavirus might be “brilliant”, as President Trump says, and a formidable threat to life – but it is still a microorganism. It is not the dictator of an enemy power; it doesn’t care what the Labour Party says; it doesn’t read the papers; it isn’t on Twitter and it isn’t intent on installing a Quisling puppet government led by Robert Peston to pursue its interests in the UK.

In fact, the nation needs no “national leader”. It is united in doing its bit – social isolation, social distancing, working from home. We need no figure to create national solidarity.

I never liked Johnson’s politics and I certainly don’t want him glorified, but I didn’t, therefore, wish him dead from Covid-19, as some argue must be my motivation. The cult of Boris is getting ridiculous.

Of course, I can see how some argue that the coronavirus is beyond political point-scoring and that the media and MPs should just shut up about it because it’s a global natural disaster and, well, what could anyone do? The feeling – quite genuine – is that everyone should just give the government the benefit of the doubt and let them get on with it, unmolested. They know best.

The evidence, though, is that the government could have done more sooner, as other countries did. If anything, in the early days of the crisis – when the government reassured us that so long as we washed our hands, everything would be okay – the media and opposition MPs were too soft. Even now we know better, new failures – a lack of testing, ventilators and PPE, overcrowding in care homes and prisons – remain unresolved. Nurses and doctors and others have died for want of a face mask. Someone has to answer for that before some long-distant public inquiry.

The point about scrutiny is that it makes for better policy – and that saves lives. Elevating Johnson to a generalissimo beyond scrutiny is, when you think about it, just the kind of thing we used to fight real wars to prevent.