On Wednesday, Mark Harper, the chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said: “Why should people at home listening to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State do things that people working in Number 10 Downing Street are not prepared to do?”

Mr Johnson’s scientific advisers have tried to separate the fallout from the political scandal and the need for new Covid regulations. Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, said on Wednesday that people’s anger should be “kept very separate in their minds” from the logic behind Covid restrictions.

Last August, researchers at UCL found a clear loss of trust in the Government after the Barnard Castle affair, in which Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, refused to resign after breaching lockdown rules.

A YouGov survey in the aftermath found that one third of people who had started breaking lockdown rules in the previous month mentioned Mr Cummings as a reason for doing so.