London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Everybody got 'complacent' over virus, suggests PM

PM Boris Johnson has suggested the recent spike in coronavirus cases in the UK is a result of a "fraying of people's discipline" over the summer.

He said compliance with the virus restrictions had been "high at first" but then "probably... everybody got a bit, kind of complacent and blasé".

Cases have increased sharply across the UK since the end of August.

After starting to relax restrictions before the summer, the government has since had to toughen its measures.

It comes as the latest UK figures show there have been a further 6,968 cases and another 66 deaths.

The R number - a measure of how many other people each person with the virus is infecting - has risen to between 1.3 and 1.6.

However, there is more evidence that new coronavirus infections may be increasing more slowly than in previous weeks.

In total, at least 16.8 million people in the UK - about one in four people - face extra coronavirus measures on top of the national rules, including two-thirds of people in the north of England.

The prime minister, who has been speaking to BBC journalists from around the country, denied that a lack of testing in north-east England had caused the virus to get out of control in the region.

"That's not the reality… the nation came together in March and April, what happened over the summer was a bit of sort of fraying of people's discipline and attention to those rules," he said.

The government has faced strong criticism for its mixed messages since it started easing the national lockdown in late spring.

After a steady decline in confirmed cases since the first peak in April, cases began rising again in July, with the rate of growth increasing sharply from the end of August.

In a separate interview with BBC Scotland, Mr Johnson said: "You saw what happened in March and April in Scotland, across the country, we came together and got the virus down.

"Alas, probably what happened since then is that everyone got a bit, kind of complacent and a bit blasé about transmission.

"The rules on social distancing weren't perhaps obeyed in the way they could have been, or enforced in the way they could have been, and that's why we've had to put in measures both in Scotland and elsewhere to bring it down again."

New rules, such as restricting gatherings to a maximum of six people and limiting opening hours for hospitality venues, are among the national measures that have been introduced around the UK.

"I'm afraid some of the muscle memory has faded and people are not following the guidance in the way that they should," Mr Johnson added.

Asked about comments from the mayor of Middlesbrough who said there had been a "frightening lack of communication with local government" over local lockdowns, Mr Johnson disagreed, adding: "We work very closely with local government across the country."

The prime minister also described concerns that he has not been "the old Boris" since contracting coronavirus in March as "sinister disinformation".

He said he felt "considerably better" and, thanks to "recent efforts", he was about two stones lighter than he was a year ago.

Mr Johnson has previously revealed he has hired a personal trainer to lose weight after acknowledging he was "too fat" when he caught Covid-19.

He also declined to comment when asked about the future of MP Margaret Ferrier, who travelled from Glasgow to London with Covid-19 symptoms then returned home after testing positive.

"I'm going to leave that one very much to the SNP and to their whips - that's for them to decide but it's very important that everyone obeys the rules and the guidance," he said.

The Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation into Ms Ferrier, who has been suspended by the SNP and faces calls to quit as an MP.


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×