During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quoted as stating the government should “just let people die” rather than force a second national lockdown, according to the study into how Britain handled the crisis, which concluded on Monday.
Patrick Vallance, the government’s main scientific adviser, made a note in his diary on Oct. 25, 2020, about a meeting between then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Sunak, the finance minister.
The diary entry presented to the inquiry detailed how Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s most senior adviser during the pandemic, communicated to Vallance what he said he heard at the meeting.
Vallance quoted Cummings in his diary as saying: “Rishi thinks just let people die and that’s okay. This all feels like a complete lack of leadership.”
Sunak’s spokesman said the prime minister will state his position when giving evidence to the panel “rather than responding to each one piecemeal.”
The inquiry is looking into the government’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down huge parts of the economy and killed over 220,000 individuals in the UK.
Senior government officials have frequently stated that the government was unprepared for the epidemic, and that the response to the health crisis was impeded by a “toxic” and “macho” attitude.
The risk for Sunak is that evidence from the probe undermines his attempt to portray himself as a change from Johnson’s chaotic leadership, despite the fact that he was one of the most senior ministers in that cabinet.
Furthermore, previous evidence indicates that he was dubbed “Dr. Death” by one government scientific adviser in the summer of 2020 for his “Eat Out to Help Out” policy, which sponsored meals in bars and restaurants but was lambasted by health professionals for spreading the virus.