I understand your confusion. Probably you didn't mishear. This has the hallmarks of someone writing with full command of English, but laying trails of multiple meaning to disguise what would otherwise be overt criticism of UK government policy (or lack of policy). Irony, understatement and disguised meaning are widely practised in British English. But it still could be just a slip of the tongue! It's given me reason to remember an old song, Alexandra Leaving, (based on a very old Egyptian poem, I think), and its portrait of a person "in full command of every plan ...." who nevertheless cannot (or will not) face reality. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Alexandra+leaving+

Thank you for your answer Michael. I am confused because of the meaning of 'outrider' and how it is actually used in this context... Maybe I misheard the word and it was 'outlier', or maybe it is like you said, some kind of irony about Britain taking a different direction in order to go ahead and ultimately taking the same measures as other countries.

OK this is interesting ... In normal use, an outrider would be a motorcyclist (or less, likely, a cyclist or horserider) riding as a guard or escort. In figurative use, an outrider might be expected to be like a scout; someone who travels in advance of a group or person to check the safety and details of a journey. https://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=outrider The context here implies more the choice of the word "outlier" - someone doing something very different from what the mainstream is doing. Here, I'd be inclined to take the intended meaning as "outlier", unless other parts of the article demonstrate support for the UK's unusual (and to date very unsuccessful) policy choices. I hope this helps. (This does not look like any kind of error by the author; rather, it appears to be a subtle and clever way of positioning this commentary. It may owe a debt to the British English predilection for understatement. Or of course it could just be a tangled choice of word. ) https://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=outrider

Britain is ahead of other countries but other countries are busy making measurements ..

More than 3 police outriders are no escorting the president of the united states ... Britain is ahead of other countries but other countries are busy making measurements ..