In 2014, Boris Johnson published The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History, a hagiographic account of the life of the Conservative former prime minister. Defending Winston Churchill’s “titanic egotism,” Johnson depicted him as “eccentric, over the top, camp, with his own special trademark clothes — and a thoroughgoing genius,” and he sought to draw comparisons between Churchill and himself with no degree of subtlety. The fact that Johnson has wanted to be prime minister since early childhood, and that Churchill is his greatest influence, is no secret. But Johnson could not have anticipated that, while Churchill led the country during World War II, he himself would face the greatest challenge of any prime minister since his hero so shortly into his premiership.

Johnson and his government’s response to coronavirus has been shaped by the prime minister’s preoccupation with Churchill. The British response to the virus has been markedly slow and differed drastically from that of every other European country afflicted. The U-turns have piled up: large gatherings were allowed to go ahead, and, as a result, several people who worked at the 250,000-strong horse-racing festival at Cheltenham are now ill with symptoms associated with the virus.

The Conservatives initially attacked journalists and members of the public who criticized Johnson for stating on morning television that “one of the theories is you could perhaps take [coronavirus] on the chin, take it all in one go, and allow the disease as it were to move through the population without taking as many draconian measures. I think we need to strike a balance,” — stating that he was quoted out of context, and that government policy was shaped by science. It then emerged the scientists in question were largely behavioral scientists — from the “Nudge Unit” — and, after intense public backlash and anger at the idea that behavior modification would constitute the plan rather than the state taking the same kind of epidemiological tactics that contained the virus elsewhere, the government backtracked. Johnson said schools would remain open; schools will now close for most pupils on Friday afternoon.