But fewer are concerned about the individual threat

Whenever this is all over, and who can predict that, it is clear that the events of the past three months and the actions of ministers are set to have a big impact on domestic politics. Pollster Ipsos-MORI has been asking tracker questions and we can see from the two charts above how things have moved.

The worrying one for Team Boris is the growing percentage who think that action was taken too late – something that is currently reinforced by the death toll position for the UK.

I’m far from convinced about the data in the UK and elsewhere but it does seem at the moment that this country has fared badly.

Fortunately for the government there are no imminent elections. The ones that were due to take place a week today have rightly been put back until next year. The next general election is not scheduled to happen before 2024.

Before then, hopefully, the pandemic will be over but the economic impact is going to take years to shake itself out and here the “did the government act to late” issue could be a constant irritant.

My reading of Starmer is that he’s playing for long-term and the “late to act” charge looks like a powerful ace to be played at the right time.