It is not right for MPs to rush back to Westminster. They should set an example instead

Editorial: The recovery depends on getting the epidemic under control. Part of that is keeping as many people working from home for as long as possible

Jacob Rees-Mogg has urged MPs to return to parliament (Getty)

As a sort of living parliamentary fossil, the leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, might be expected to want to see MPs properly return to Westminster. He has made his views plain, and called on members to come back to their usual place of toil, and wind down the experiment with remote working.

No doubt Mr Rees-Mogg would like to do away with the stripy tape across the carpets, which makes the place look more like a crime scene (appropriately or not); and to tear down the incongruous giant monitors stuck like carbuncles around Pugin’s neo-Gothic masterpiece.

So this elegant anachronism has urged MPs to “lead by example” at a time when ministers are actively encouraging workers in construction, manufacturing, scientific research and other areas to get back to work. It is a noble clarion call, but one that raises some rather difficult questions, both for parliament and more widely.