As coronavirus rages, British love for NHS could make or break Boris Johnson

The cult of the National Health Service has been key to so many political fortunes over the decades, but no PM has weaponised it more than Johnson

As the virus gets more entrenched in Britain, the question is not just whether the NHS can cope, but whether it’s just able to cope enough

Reading Time:5 minutes

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson applauding health workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic in London. Photo: AP

Published: 6:30pm, 3 Apr 2020Updated: 6:30pm, 3 Apr 2020

Schoolkids in lockdown put home-made signs in their bedroom windows thanking brave doctors and nurses. Families stepped outside their front doors for a national round of applause. Public buildings lit up blue. Stores have offered discounts to hospital staff, and designated hours.

They are hailed as heroes in Italy and Spain as the countries bear the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, but nowhere does the medical system stir more passion than in Britain. When the government asked for 250,000 volunteers to help, three times that number signed up.

The cult of the National Health Service (NHS) has been key to so many political fortunes over the decades, but no leader has weaponised it more than Boris Johnson after years of austerity measures implemented by his Conservative Party. While peers across Europe come under strain fighting the pandemic, few have more to gain or lose from the ability of the health system to cope than the British prime minister.

During the 2016 Brexit campaign, Johnson’s message was that leaving the European Union would save 350 million pounds (US$433 million) a week to pump into the NHS, a sum later discredited. His emphatic election victory in December used the slogan “Get Brexit Done” so that the government could focus on areas like “our fantastic NHS.” The mantra for the Covid-19 pandemic is stay at home to “Protect Our NHS.”

“The cynic in me says it is easy to clap,” said Martin Lodge, a political scientist at the London School of Economics. “Emotionally the NHS is a uniting symbol. All parties know electorally the NHS is a key thing.”

The UK is now bracing for the disease to spread rapidly. The number of fatalities is already increasing at more than 500 a day, the level of Spain, the most deadly epicentre in Europe along with Italy, less than two weeks ago.

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