United Kingdom: Political Developments and Data in 2021: Lockdown and Lobbying

Covid‐19 still dominated politics in the UK in 2021, with another national lockdown announced in England just days into the year. Schools and non‐essential shops closed for several months, and restrictions were not finally lifted until July after the roll‐out of the vaccine programme. The final few weeks of 2021 were populated with multiple reports of Covid restrictions being broken at Downing Street during the earlier lockdowns. This, along with the government seeking to protect an MP accused of breaking lobbying rules, saw a substantial decrease in the Prime Minister's popularity over the year. In October, Sir David Amess was murdered during a constituency surgery – the first such death since 2016.