Johnson looks beyond virus as ratings dip

Bloomberg

Boris Johnson will set out his plans for rebuilding the UK economy after the coronavirus as he seeks to stem the hemorrhaging of support for his government’s response to the crisis.
The prime minister will use a speech later this month to commit to speeding up spending on roads, hospitals and research, his office said after three opinion polls showed public confidence in his administration slipping and the gap narrowing between his Conservatives and the main opposition Labour Party.
Johnson, who won a commanding majority in the House of Commons in December, will commit to spending to support the normally Labour-voting industrial regions in the north that backed him at the election. He has already said there will be no return to the austerity policies that followed the 2008 financial crisis.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted there will be no “trade off” between the economy and health in a response to reports in the Sunday Times newspaper that Johnson wants to speed the lifting of the UK’s lockdown to stop a massive increase in unemployment.
“The worst thing for the economy would be a second spike, so there isn’t this trade off that much is made of in the media between health and the economy,” Hancock said in an interview with Sky News. “I care deeply about getting the economy going and the best way to get the economy going is to ensure we get down the number of new infections right down.”
The UK, which passed 40,000 deaths from the disease last week and has the second-highest number of any country in the world, has been moving to lift restrictions as Johnson battles claims that his administration has botched its response to the pandemic by failing to prepare and moving too slowly to lock down the country. Non-essential retailers are scheduled to reopen on June 15 and places of worship will be available for private prayer from the same day, the government said.