Britain has stumbled through a highly political pandemic.

Virtually every move Boris Johnson's government has made in response to the Covid-19 crisis has sharply divided the weary nation — starting with his refusal to sack a roaming chief aide in May, and encompassing since his struggles on testing, contact tracing, technology, schools and lockdown restrictions.

But as the country enters a new stage in its coronavirus response and cases tick upwards at an alarming rate, the political back-and-forth is entering a new arena: the lounges, bedrooms and studies of millions of British workers.

Nearly half of the United Kingdom's 30 million employees have worked from home during the pandemic, according to the country's statistics body, with an additional 9 million placed on the country's furlough scheme.