It was the first time the Covid inquiry had heard directly from Rishi Sunak and things went immediately awry for the prime minister: his claim in a witness statement that no one had raised concerns about a flagship pandemic policy was immediately contradicted by the government’s former chief scientific adviser.
Monday’s tussle over the “eat out to help out” scheme, in which Sir Patrick Vallance responded to an extract read out from Sunak’s statement, which has yet to be published, was arguably more embarrassing than damaging.
But with the prime minister scheduled to appear in person soon, the dangers are piling up. More and more details are emerging about the role of the man referred to disparagingly by one scientific adviser as “Dr Death the chancellor”.
The perils fall into two broad camps. The first is the narrative emerging from a range of evidence and testimony that Sunak’s Treasury was, in the words of Boris Johnson, as recorded in Vallance’s diary, “the pro-death squad” – that is to say, so intent on prioritising economic reopening that it put public safety at risk.
Much of this centres around eat out to help out: a brief but lavish £850m scheme in summer 2020 to incentivise people to go in person to cafes and restaurants; a scheme the inquiry has been told was imposed without any consultation, leaving Vallance and others “blindsided”.
The second danger is arguably more acute: an emerging suggestion that the prime minister was not only reckless in seeking to sideline advisers but could now be trying to cover up this failure.
It is worth noting that however badly Sunak’s apparently gung-ho approach to reopening the economy might land with some voters, it could equally win him plaudits among anti-lockdown Conservative MPs, plus certain rightwing newspapers and TV channels.
Sunak could thus be minded to unapologetically present himself as the voice of economic and social reality, an attempted counterweight to restriction-obsessed scientists.
If he does, there is certainly no lack of evidence to back this up. Witness after witness has stressed Sunak’s keenness to lift restrictions, exemplified by the “Dr Death” moniker, used in a private message by Prof Dame Angela McLean, who has since replaced Vallance as chief scientific adviser.
Vallance’s diary repeatedly showed his apparent annoyance with the then chancellor, one extract saying Sunak made “increasingly specific and spurious arguments” against new restrictions. It also recalled Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former aide, summarising Sunak’s view as “just let people die and that’s OK”.
A particularly eye-opening extract recounted Sunak telling a virtual meeting on economics that his job was “all about handling the scientists, not handling the virus”, not realising Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, was on the call.
To defend all of this would involve justifying eat out to help out, a proposal which, studies have suggested,…
2023-11-25 02:23:01
Source from www.theguardian.com
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