Emily Maitlis says lockdown was probably 'quite a lovely experience' for the middle classes

Jessica Carpani
Sat, March 13, 2021


People on their way to work in SE London passing a mural on the first day of an official lockdown - Heathcliff O'Malley

Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis has said the lockdown was probably “quite a lovely experience” for the middle classes.

The journalist was discussing the disproportionate way that Covid-19 has affected communities in the UK.

Speaking at Women of the World Festival 2021, she told Vanessa Kingori, publishing director of British Vogue, that Boris Johnson’s narrative that we’re all in it together at the beginning of the outbreak was “a slightly naive one”.

On March 22 2020, the PM had said: “We will get through this together, and we will beat the virus.

“To win this fight, we need everyone to follow our advice: as far as possible, we want you to stay at home. The more effectively everyone does this, the faster this country will recover.”

But Maitlis criticised the message, arguing that it had been harder for certain groups of people, including frontline workers, people with lower incomes and members of the BAME community.

“Yes, technically, we were in it together. And yet, it quickly became clear that some parts of our communities were suffering much, much more intensively than others.

“Lockdown if you're a celebrity on a yacht is not the same as if you're in a tower block, which is still covered in dangerous cladding.

“I think that ‘aren't we all going through the same thing?’ was a sort of comforting narrative at the beginning, until we realised it really wasn't the same,” she said.

Maitlis said it was important to her that Newsnight make the distinction between people’s lived experience of lockdown and how it had differed depending on circumstance, adding that “it was probably quite a lovely experience for some people”.

She continued: “It was a wonderful fairy tale that we told ourselves but bluntly, if you were richer, and you had a nice big, warm house, and plenty of room for your kids to run around, it was a totally different experience, and probably quite a lovely experience for some people.

“And if you had no room and you weren't working from home, and you couldn't afford to self-isolate, because you couldn't afford to lose the money then it was a totally different Covid.”