You may be right, but even so the way it's said make it seems like if he lifts restrictions in places he do everything he can to avoid putting those restrictions back in place even if cases start to rise again. If that happens he needs to be able to have the scope to reverse them. What he's done is backed himself into a corner by either breaking that 'promise' as the nutters will see it or keeping it and allowing the virus to regain momentum.
But being Johnson he'll be more than willing to u-turn depending on which is most popular. I just hope with vaccinations, hopefully warmer, sunnier weather on the way in the next few months maybe, just maybe we can stop the lockdown cycle. Fear is new variants and wet, dull spring weather will mean this won't be the last lockdown we see.