As we get back to work, it is time for Parliament to lead by example

This week is already proving to be a turning point in the war against Covid-19. On Sunday, the Prime Minister outlined his roadmap in a broadcast to the nation. Yesterday the Government published its 51-page strategy document , Our plan to rebuild, which sets out a credible path forward. Above all, the plan holds out the enticing prospect of relaxing the lockdown sufficiently to allow friends and families to see one another again. The debate in Parliament was helpful in airing public concerns, as was the evening press conference, conducted by the Prime Minister, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser, in which questions from the public rather outshone those of the media. After seven weeks of stasis, the country is moving again; the change in atmosphere is palpable.  

It is, however, vital that this momentum should not be lost. Boris Johnson has been criticised for sending out confusing or mixed messages. There is some justification for this criticism, but most of the questions that his broadcast raised are in fact answered in Our plan to rebuild. As Prime Minister, it is essential that he carries out his plan’s pledge to share the burdens of the pandemic, the lockdown and the recession they have already precipitated as fairly as possible. This means that those elites who are used to calling the shots in Tory circles are no longer so influential.

In yesterday’s debate it was clear that the Conservative Party is now more representative of the country as a whole — whether measured by region, class, gender or ethnicity — than ever before. The Opposition parties, by contrast, are more narrowly-based. The reason why there is no call for a coalition is that we already have a genuinely national Government.

Yet it still matters hugely that the Opposition does its job. Sir Keir Starmer, in a broadcast response to the prime ministerial statement, demanded “clarity and reassurance”, but promised to “remain committed to working constructively with the Government in the national interest”. It is impossible to imagine Jeremy Corbyn making such a commitment; indeed, in the parliamentary debate the former Labour leader asked a typically self-aggrandising non-question, to which he received a no less typically courteous reply from Boris Johnson.

As Leader of the Opposition, however, Sir Keir will be held to account too. When he was responsible for Labour’s Brexit policy, he refused to sign up to Theresa May’s deal. Instead, he demanded a second referendum. By rejecting compromise, he and other Remainers ended up with a harder Brexit. Starmer’s learning curve has now brought him to offer cooperation rather than opposing for its own sake. He has already shown that he is more than capable of subjecting the Prime Minister to rigorous cross-examination. The country expects the politicians to take collective responsibility for the crisis, rather than playing premature blame games and petty point-scoring. Sir Keir gets that, so he is rightly getting a hearing. But he also gets the fact that Labour has been so tarnished by five years of Corbynism that his only hope of restoring its reputation is to play a positive role in Parliament.

Ah yes, Parliament. In Our plan to rebuild, the legislature only rates a brief mention: “Parliament must set a national example of how business can continue in this new normal; and it must move… towards further physical proceedings in the House of Commons.” This return to real, not virtual, debates is a consummation devoutly to be wished. The Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has made it clear for some time that if the country is ever to get back to work, MPs must lead by example. Whether the Labour and other Opposition parties support his view is less clear.

It would be a great pity for Parliament as an institution if Members became too comfortable with the present arrangement of participating only by video link. Obviously the main problem is how to accommodate up to 650 MPs in a small chamber, while still observing social distancing. Yet there is surely scope for expanding the space available, for example by using the Strangers’ and Press galleries, which are at present out of use. The use of testing might also help to make both Houses Covid-safe. Sir Keir could and should make a grand gesture by offering urgent discussions about creating a “new normal” in Parliament. It is also in his interest to do so: he is at his best in the Commons, where his incisive courtroom manner is entirely at home. (He is less comfortable in addressing the public directly.)  

After more than three years of politics dominated by Brexit, to the exclusion of almost everything else, MPs now have an even more all-consuming preoccupation. Apart from the emergency measures necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic , the country has had to muddle through. Parliament is becoming accustomed to a narrow focus of legislative activity and to laws being passed with a minimum of oversight. This state of affairs ought not to become the new normal by default. The Government’s manual, Our plan to rebuild, deserves to be scrutinised and debated in detail. So should each step in the gradual lifting of the lockdown.

In this week of renewed encouragement to return to work, it is noticeable that private enterprise has been quicker to react than the public sector. We are by now all familiar with the damage done by red tape in the public health system. Local authorities are, in many cases, dragging their feet in reopening recycling and waste disposal centres. But the worst example is in education. The refusal of the teaching unions even to contemplate some pupils going back to school in June has been disappointing, if not unexpected. Mary Bousted, leader of the National Education Union, complained that the Government was not proposing to follow the example of China, where children are sprayed with disinfectant before entering the school. It is hard to imagine anything more likely to deter parents from allowing their children to return to the classroom.

This is the time for public service, not public sector pusillanimity. If people want their jobs back, they cannot afford to be led by jobsworths. As has been argued by many contributors to TheArticle, Boris Johnson must raise his game. Demonstrating leadership, however, is not the sole preserve of the Prime Minister. Parliament can and must show some initiative, too. On VE Day, Churchill urged his compatriots: “Advance, Britannia!” This week, she has indeed advanced, if only hesitantly. It will soon, God willing, be time for Britannia to stride ahead.