PM would almost certainly have known concerns over ‘eat out to help out’ scheme, says former chief scientific adviser
PM would almost
certainly have known concerns over ‘eat out to help out’ scheme, says former
chief scientific adviser
Rishi Sunak would
almost certainly have known scientists were worried about his “eat out to help
out” scheme during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance has said, directly
contradicting the prime minister’s evidence to the Covid inquiry.
In potentially
damaging testimony, Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser
during the pandemic, said he would be “very surprised” if Sunak, then
chancellor, had not learned about objections to his plan to help the
hospitality industry.
Sunak had written
to the inquiry saying he “[did] not recall any concerns about the scheme” being
raised in ministerial meetings despite growing concerns that the discount plan
could fuel the spread of the virus.
In an extract from
Vallance’s contemporaneous diary, the inquiry also heard of a “shambolic” day
on 25 October 2020, when the country was heading towards a second national
lockdown.
The diary entry
highlights how Boris Johnson wanted to let the virus spread, while his most
senior adviser, Dominic Cummings (DC), suggested Sunak, then chancellor,
thought it was “OK” to just let people die.
The extract read:
“PM meeting – begins to argue for letting it all rip. Saying yes there will be
more casualties but so be it – ‘they have had a good innings’,” before later
saying: “DC says ‘Rishi thinks just let people die and that’s okay’. This all
feels like a complete lack of leadership.”
The same entry
also quoted Johnson as saying: “Most people who die have reached their time
anyway.”
Asked about the
diary entry, Vallance told the inquiry he was recording what must have been
“quite a shambolic day”.
Asked about the
diary entries, Downing Street declined to say whether Sunak thought it would be
OK to “just let people die” during the pandemic, saying it would be for the
prime minister to set out his position during evidence before the Covid
Inquiry.
In further
revelations from the pandemic diaries, an entry in July 2020, provided evidence
that Sunak also sought to push back against the scientists’ advice. In one
economics-based meeting, Sunak said “it’s all about handling the scientists,
not handling the virus”, the entry said.
Vallance said:
“There were definitely periods when it was clear that the unwelcome advice we
were giving was, as expected, not beloved, and that meant we had to work doubly
hard to make sure that the science evidence and advice was being properly
heard.”
In other evidence,
Vallance said Boris Johnson at times struggled to follow basic scientific
concepts crucial to Covid, such as the impacts of lockdown on waves of
infection, and had to have them explained repeatedly.
Asked about
Sunak’s eating out scheme, which gave millions of people discounts of up to £10
at restaurants and cafes in summer 2020, Vallance said he and other scientific
advisers were not asked for their views before it was launched by the Treasury.
“Up until that
point, the message had been very clear, which is interaction between different
households and people that you weren’t living with in an enclosed environment
with many others was a high-risk activity. That policy completely reversed it,”
Vallance said.
“It is very
difficult to see how it would not have had an effect on transmission and that
would have been the advice that was given.”
The inquiry was
then shown an extract from the written witness statement of Sunak, who is due
to appear in person next month, in which he said that before and after the
scheme’s launch he did “not recall any concerns about the scheme being
expressed during ministerial discussions”. These included meetings attended by
Vallance and Chris Whitty.
Asked if this was
correct, Vallance said it “would have been very obvious to anyone that this
would inevitably cause an increase in transmission risk, and I think that would
have been known by ministers”.
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