Boris Johnson faces pivotal decision on easing of UK lockdown

BORIS Johnson returns to full-time work this week, after a three-week coronavirus absence, to make the toughest decisions of his premiership. While Mr Johnson has much goodwill from the nation after his brush with death, the government is losing public support and he very quickly must make a big call on whether to ease the United Kingdom lockdown in May.

Before he was struck with the virus in March, he and the government were riding high in the polls and given the benefit of the doubt over early handling of the outbreak. This was despite public concerns about issues such as limited reserves of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers, and also the slow start the government made in March and April on testing.

For example, a poll released in the second half of last month from Ipsos Mori found 49 per cent of people then thought the government was tackling the crisis well while 35 per cent believe it was handling it badly. Fast forward a month and public confidence in the government's ability to handle the exceptionally complex situation has fallen significantly, with less than half of voters now having faith in decisions made by ministers, according to an Opinium poll on Sunday.