Boris Johnson will take the public with him if he is cautious about lifting restrictions

Editorial: Fortunately, the prime minister has given himself some flexibility on the 21 June deadline

Public opinion will support Boris Johnson if he delays the lifting of some restrictions, a poll for The Independent finds (Reuters)

No matter how much a vocal minority of Conservative backbench MPs insist that the British public has had enough of coronavirus restrictions, the evidence points the other way.

A Savanta ComRes opinion poll for The Independent finds that a clear majority of the people are worried about lifting most of the remaining restrictions on 21 June – the earliest date set by the government for the fourth stage of the phased return to normality.

The poll suggests that 65 per cent of people are worried about ending social distancing, 63 per cent are concerned about dropping the requirement for face coverings in closed spaces, and 60 per cent think it is too early to allow unlimited numbers into concerts, theatres and sports stadiums.

The picture painted by the survey is far from the caricature of a restive and angry nation aching to be released from the illiberal yoke of lockdown that is offered by some opponents of restrictions. They are putting pressure on the prime minister to stick to the 21 June date, when he must set his people free. They have a point, but it is a limited one, in that some of the restrictions intruded unnecessarily on personal liberty.

Generally, the rules were justified in the name of public health, and were widely supported by the public, whose main complaint throughout has been that the measures were brought in too late and were not severe enough.

If Boris Johnson wants to extend the 21 June date, therefore, he will find ready support from the people at large. As Martin McKee, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told The Independent, “the public seem to be ahead of the government” about the dangers of ploughing ahead on 21 June.

What Mr Johnson wants, however, is obscure, as it so often is. The description of him presented to MPs on the joint select committee last month by Dominic Cummings, his former chief adviser, was of a frustrated anti-lockdowner, who would be at one with the Tory backbench libertarians if he were not trapped in No 10, forced to listen to the government’s scientific advisers.

He has kicked against the advice so often, appearing to end up with the worst of all worlds by bowing to it reluctantly and belatedly, meaning that resurgences of the virus have been worse than they need have been.

This time, though, he has given himself some room for manoeuvre. By setting 21 June as the target date for lifting “most” of the remaining restrictions, he can satisfy both his libertarian backbenchers and public opinion – or even both parts of his own divided mind – by lifting some restrictions but retaining others. Our poll suggests, for example, that nervousness about lifting the limits on the numbers attending weddings and funerals falls below 50 per cent.

It is widely speculated that the government will keep some restrictions beyond the 21 June date. The most difficult decision will be that on the rules for social distancing.

The hospitality business is desperate for the “one metre plus” rule to be scrapped, which is rendering large parts of the industry unviable, but Mr Johnson must stick to his dictum of data not dates, and if the scientific advice is to delay for a few weeks, that is what he must do, safe in the knowledge that most of the public will support him.