Boris Johnson has the chance to show Britain can still lead by example at the G7 summit

Editorial: From the global vaccine rollout, to taxation and the overseas aid budget – the government has to do more than talk a good game

The G7 summit is set to take place in Cornwall

(Reuters)

Boris Johnson is arriving at the point at which it will become clear to see if he intends to govern by word or by deed.

He has talked extensively about “levelling up”, yet so far he has just been forced by Marcus Rashford into providing free school meals for hungry children. He has talked extensively of his passion for education, but has committed funding for the post-Covid catchup programme, which “falls far short of what is needed”, according to the person in charge – who promptly resigned.

This week, the UK will host the G7 summit. Already Johnson is talking of Britain “leading the world” through, among other things, pushing for a commitment to vaccinate the world by the end of 2022, although we have yet to put a specific figure on the number of vaccines we will donate to the global vaccine-sharing programme, Covax. It is believed the announcement will come during the summit – but if we truly want to lead by example, shouldn’t it have come already?