Politicians seem to have forgotten all about the pandemic – wearing masks just looks like virtue signalling

There are many phrases I try not to use, either because they annoy me or because I feel they are never used correctly. “Virtue signalling” is one of them; has it ever been uttered in good faith? Even if it has, isn’t it a good (or, at worst, neutral thing) to want to showcase your virtue to the world?

Still, there’s a first time for everything, and I’m afraid there is no other way to describe the recent behaviour of Labour MPs. In the chamber before recess, their benches were full of row after row of masked parliamentarians, which looked especially stark because the opposite benches were largely mask-free.

Because masks never quite became a tool of the culture wars here, the party political split on the estate was shocking. What was even more surprising, however, was the fact that none of those MPs bothered wearing masks in Brighton.

All attendees of the Labour conference were told beforehand that masks were expected to be worn around the centre, and the request was politely ignored across the board. MPs mingled indoors with party members, journalists and each other – and those wearing masks looked absurd, because there were so few of them.

Stewards were meant to check the Covid passes of everyone walking in, but gave up on the second day, because it was a bit rainy and windy outside. In this context, is it possible to look at the masking of Labour MPs in the Commons and call it anything but virtue signalling? Unless they consider the MPs they share a chamber with to be especially high risk, why else would they only wear masks when around them?

It will be interesting to see what they do after recess. If I were to guess, I would say that they will, once again, cover their faces in crowded places, giving a new and duller meaning to the saying “what happens at conference stays at conference”.

It will also be worth keeping an eye on the mood of the Tory benches. Will the jolly atmosphere of their Manchester getaway be transported back to Westminster? We are headed towards an especially bleak winter after all, and they will not be able to ignore it forever.

Though conference season always ends up being, by nature, a bit of a bubble, this year’s also felt like it was stuck in time. It was puzzling to witness the Labour party bicker so much and the Conservatives be so complacent, but it made sense if you thought of it all as taking place in 2020, in a parallel universe where the pandemic never happened.

There was a general election and one party was triumphant and another left on the verge of extinction. Covid-19 prevented both sides from properly digesting their new reality, so they remained in stasis until Brighton and Manchester then got it all out of their system. The question is: can they now readjust to the world we do live in?

A few weeks ago, I wrote in this very column that Westminster was struggling to pretend that it was back to normal. In hindsight, this isn’t quite the problem; instead, Westminster needs to realise that its “new normal” is not normal at all.

The pandemic is still here and so are the consequences of a clunky and botched exit from the European Union. Johnson can talk about levelling up all he wants and Starmer can attempt to reform the opposition until the cows come home, but it will not change the fact that this is not business as usual.

More than 780 deaths from Covid were reported in the past week and over 5,000 people were admitted to hospital in that time. We have the vaccine but we do also have an upcoming flu season and collectively weakened immune systems. The measures imposed on us last year should hopefully not be needed again, but we cannot pretend the bad times are entirely behind us either.

Our political class knows how to behave as normal and, over the past 18 months, learnt how to behave in the midst of an all-consuming crisis. What awaits us is neither; we are heading towards uncharted waters, where they will have to rebuild the country while keeping an eye on the ever-constant threat of the pandemic.

Conference season was a nice comfort blanket, but reality is going to bite soon. Let’s hope MPs are ready for what’s coming.