Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientist, is becoming a problem for Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson’s one solid defence of his record in handling coronavirus has been that he followed the advice of the scientists. He was asked by Graham Stringer, the Labour MP, why he didn’t respond earlier to data showing infections were doubling every three days, instead of every six or seven days: “Why didn’t you and Sage advise the government to change their attitude, because the lockdown might have happened earlier?” Sir Patrick tried to distinguish between “lockdown” – the government order that everyone should stay at home, issued on 23 March – and the “series of steps leading up” to that decision. It was also the day that Matt Hancock, the health secretary, defined as “lockdown” when he was asked in the Commons about Sir Patrick’s comments. Sir Patrick’s comments yesterday imply that he advised the prime minister orally to introduce the “remaining measures” on either 16 or 18 March, but it seems unlikely that he would have gone beyond the formal consensus view of Sage as recorded in the minutes. With Boris Johnson about to announce the latest “guidance” on this subject at 11am this morning, Sir Patrick said yesterday that his view, “and I think this is a view shared by Sage, is that we’re still at a time when distancing measures are important, and, of the various distancing measures, working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it’s easy to do”.