Differences have been put aside as the UK’s leaders work together to limit deaths during the pandemic

The pandemic may drive a new wedge through the United Kingdom, Cambridge academics have said.

The UK’s leaders are following a “four nations action plan” to limit deaths, striking an uncommonly consensual tone after a decade of constitutional wrangling over independence.

However, this consensus could collapse if the death rate spirals out of control, opening a new fault line, according to Michael Kenny and Jack Sheldon, of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy social inequality research group.

They wrote: “While the incentives for co-operation are strong, there are countervailing dynamics too, and it is possible that co-operation could give way to greater divergence.”

Notable ceasefires include Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to pause her Scottish independence campaign, and Boris Johnson inviting her to join the Cobra emergency