In the afternoon there was a meeting of Cobra – and the prime minister was nowhere to be seen. ‘I turn up and Michael Gove is chairing it. Not Johnson. It was odd,’ one of those present recalls. ‘To miss such a critical Cobra meeting, I just don’t understand why. It’s inexplicable because this is the Cobra where we decided to bring in nationwide measures and he delegates to Michael Gove. It’s just odd. It’s literally a five-minute walk from Cabinet Office through the corridor to No. 10 to the press conference.’
