‘Sunak said just let people die during pandemic': Britain's COVID inquiry told

Diary entries by Britain’s former chief scientific adviser claim that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, then the finance minister, had said that the government should “just let people die” than impose a second lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The entries were shared with United Kingdom’s pandemic response that is probing the government’s handling of COVID-19, on Monday (November 20).

Britain’s then chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance in his diary entry on October 25, 2020 mentions a meeting between then prime minister Boris Johnson with Sunak, who was the finance minister at that time.

In the entry, Vallance recounts his conversation with Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s most senior adviser about what he heard at the meeting of the lawmakers.

“Rishi thinks just let people die and that’s okay. This all feels like a complete lack of leadership,” Vallance quoted Cummings as saying, Reuters reported.

The comment was allegedly made in July 2020 when Britain was preparing to reopen the country after its first national lockdown.

Another entry by Vallance made on July 2, 2020, says that Sunak told Johnson that the government should focus on handling its scientific advisers than the spread of COVID-19.

“In the economics meeting earlier today they didn’t realise CMO (chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty) was there and CX (Sunak) said, ‘It is all about handling the scientists, not handling the virus’,” the note says.

“They then got flustered when the CMO chipped in later and they realised that he had been there all along. PM (Johnson) blustered and waffled for five mins to cover his embarrassment,” the note adds.

Sunak’s ‘Eat Out to Help out’ policy, launched in August 2020 – which encouraged people to eat out by subsiding meals in pubs and restaurants – was widely criticised by health experts who attributed it to the spread of the pandemic. Some even went to the extent of calling him ‘Dr Death’ over his decision.

Patrick told the inquiry that scientists were in the dark until the policy was launched.

According to Reuters, a spokesperson for Sunak has said that he will clarify his position when he gives evidence to the inquiry and not respond to each statement in a piecemeal manner.

The probe panel is investigating the British government’s response to the pandemic that claimed over 2 lakh lives in the country.

The allegations against Sunak threaten to upend the image of ‘change-maker’ he has built for himself post the ouster of Johnson.