//He'll do what he thinks is right based on the SAGE recommendations...//
Have you read much about the SAGE recommendations, bob? Here's a taster:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9440429/Whats-TRUTH-SAGE-models.html
https://unherd.com/thepost/sages-doomsday-predictions-are-damaging-public-trust/
Look particularly at the Fraser Nelson:Graham Medly exchange. There is little doubt in my mind that, far from making evidence- based decisions, the government is encouraging SAGE to produce decision-based evidence.
These rumblings are not from a few "anti-vaxxers" or "anti-maskers" as you suggest. There are those like Professor Philip Thomas of the University of Bristol (look him up) who believes that the SAGE members are deliberately ditching the optimistic "scenarios" produced by their models as the government believes that they do not provide sufficient evidence for them to take action,
Yes, the government will ultimately take the advice of SAGE, but the government is skewing its questions of them towards arriving at the answers it wants. (No, don't ask me why they should do that - I've long since given up trying to make sense of anything this government does in connection with the pandemic).