Let us be honest. The fact that Boris Johnson has been taken into intensive care suggests that he is gravely ill. We must pray for him. I certainly am.
His plight is confirmation, if any were needed, that this is a very serious disease that can leave even patients it spares in a debilitated and exhausted state in which it is hard to concentrate, and virtually impossible to be mentally alert.
Earlier reports that he intended to get straight back to work as soon as he was discharged from hospital – and was working his way through official papers – were certainly alarming.
Whatever happens over the next 24 hours – and, God willing, Boris will be all right – it is surely clear that he is physically in no state to resume his extremely taxing schedule when he is released from hospital.
I would go further and say that, once he has recovered, he will almost certainly be in no psychological condition to return immediately to full-time work without some sort of break after the tensions and worries that have mounted up over recent days.
After his remote updates, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care on Monday evening after his coronavirus systems worsened
The past week or so must have been utterly draining for him in a spiritual as well as a physical sense. He has been a solitary figure in his flat over No 11 Downing Street, working all hours of the day, with food deposited outside his door by unseen hands.
To make matters worse, he has been separated from his girlfriend and bride-to-be Carrie Symonds. The burdens on him must have been increased still further by the news that she, too, had caught the contagion, though seemingly much less seriously. Boris must have been deeply anxious about their unborn child.
In other words, the strains on this naturally gregarious man of trying to run the country while alone and in self-isolation have been augmented by pressing personal concerns. These have been far from ideal circumstances for any person to fight the contagion.
Moreover, a 55-year-old weighing in at around 16 stone (quite a weight for someone who is 5ft 9in) is, if not exactly in the danger zone for the disease, more at risk than most younger and fitter men.
The PM was transferred to the ICU at St Thomas’ Hospital in London at 7pm on Monday
The past week or so must have been utterly draining for Mr Johnson in a spiritual as well as a physical sense. He has been a solitary figure in his flat over No 11 Downing Street, working all hours of the day
For all these reasons, it is imperative that Boris gives his body and mind time to recover when doctors say he is well enough to leave hospital. A couple of weeks of rest at Chequers, the PM’s official country residence, in the company of Carrie are the bare minimum of what he needs.
Why has he resisted the idea of taking time off to recuperate, which is being privately urged on him by a number of friends and colleagues? Partly, no doubt, because he thinks that at this moment of national crisis it is his duty to remain on the bridge. No man could have worked harder than he has done.
And one may also speculate that, like most leaders, he wants to appear invulnerable lest, at the first stumble, ambitious rivals try to wrest the crown from his uncertain hands.
This would a misplaced thought – not least because, largely as a result of his recent triumphant electoral victory, he has built up a huge store of political capital which cannot be easily whittled away. Besides, for all his very human flaws he stands head and shoulders above all his Cabinet colleagues.
As for the argument that duty demands he stay at his post during these tumultuous days, nothing could be more misguided. In fact, I would say that duty requires – no, demands – exactly the opposite.
The last thing that this country needs at the moment is a hobbled Prime Minister who is too fatigued and borne down to tackle the indisputably enormous difficulties it faces.
What Britain wants is a re-energised leader who can bring all his intellectual agility and dynamism to dealing with our problems. How can testing be made effective and widespread? How can our economically stricken country be eased back to work without risking a recrudescence of the virus?
I simply don’t believe that at the moment Boris is in any state to grapple with these and other challenges. Let him come back when he is fighting fit. On Monday night he rightly asked the highly competent Dominic Raab, who stands next in the pecking order, to deputise for him.
For the danger is not merely that an enervated Prime Minister will find himself unequal to the task. It is possible that, already weakened by the disease, he could so overstretch himself that he suffers some sort of collapse, and then has to withdraw for several weeks at the very time he is most needed.
Over the weekend, I was appalled to read a number of mean-spirited newspaper columns by perennial Boris-haters who are blind to his leadership qualities, and apparently unconcerned by the ravages of his illness.
God knows, I have never thought him perfect. But I am convinced that right now he enjoys the confidence of the overwhelming majority of the British people.
This country needs Boris. It needs him to be well. Which is why, whatever our political allegiances, we should all pray that our sick – but indefatigable – Prime Minister gets better soon.
