May 2020 was a scorcher. Those spring days heralded a gradual easing of the UK’s initial lockdown: meeting with one other person outdoors was allowed and a return to work was possible if necessary. As I sweated down Whitehall for my first in-person meeting in months, I ran into a senior civil servant and asked about their lockdown. “I’ve been here all along, so not that different,” he said.
When Boris Johnson shut down the country on March 23 that year, life seized up for the white-collar economy. The City of London became a ghost town, but the City of Westminster had a rather different pandemic. Parliament may have gone virtual, with MPs holed up in their constituencies, but for many in government, office life rolled on.
Those who continued to work in Whitehall argue they did so out of necessity, commuting for practical and security reasons. The closer they were to power, the fewer officials worked remotely. In Downing Street and the Cabinet Office — the heart of the British state — desks were occupied throughout the three lockdowns.