Boris Johnson won a landslide election victory on ideas that his people no longer want

This most tax-averse and libertarian of politicians is now being forced into a decade of tax rises to pay for increased state activism, writes Andrew Woodcock

The PM will face state debts larger than those incurred in the 2008 financial crisis (EPA)

After weeks of stories about the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing in care homes, political correspondents sequestered in their spare rooms and home offices are grasping greedily at the first hints of an end to the lockdown by turning their thoughts to their favourite subject: what does this mean for Westminster?

MPs returning to the Commons once social distancing measures are lifted will be returning to an utterly transformed political landscape.

Following months of NHS staff and care workers being elevated to national heroes; the state bailing out private businesses and paying workers to stay at home; borrowing on a scale not seen since the Second World War and the prime minister hailing the contribution of migrants to a system “built on love”, can Boris Johnson’s government go back to the agenda which delivered his December election victory?