Dominic Raab is the best stand-in we have. Arguing about the deputy prime minister position can wait

Editorial: Constitutional reform might be tolerable in normal times – but in the middle of this crisis, the foreign secretary’s colleagues must offer their support

Raab arrives at 10 Downing Street (AFP/Getty)

Even as we send best wishes to Boris Johnson for his recovery, there are pressing questions about how the country is to be run – and this crisis managed – while he is necessarily absent from decision-making.

Of course, the nature of the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented in many decades. No one could foresee that Mr Johnson would become so unwell so rapidly, nor that the prime minister’s fiancée, the health secretary, the chief medical officer and the Cabinet Office minister would also be self-isolating. Meetings are now digital. Even if it was sitting, parliament could not function normally. There is a new Labour leader, and no permanent Liberal Democrat leader. Journalists are attacked on social media for asking difficult but reasonable questions. All of this while the country is in lockdown and governed under emergency powers. These add up to a perfect storm of a public health emergency and democratic crisis that was plainly impossible to anticipate.