Covid inquiry: Johnson surprised ‘eat out to help out’ not cleared by scientists

Boris Johnson assumed that Rishi Sunak’s flagship “eat out to help out” hospitality scheme had been cleared by government scientists and was surprised to learn later it was not, the former prime minister has told the inquiry into Covid.

In evidence that could pose notable difficulties for the prime minister when he appears before the inquiry on Monday, Johnson said it would have been “normal” for advisers such as Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance to have been briefed, and that he assumed this had been the case.

During the second day of Johnson’s evidence, he also angrily denied that comments he made about letting Covid “rip” or allowing older people to die meant he had been uncaring, saying he was simply seeking to “challenge the consensus” among scientists.

Asked about the then chancellor’s scheme, which subsidised people to eat in person at restaurants and cafes, Johnson said the plan was “within the budget of risk” given lower infection rates that summer.

“At the time it was aired to me it was not presented to me as an acceleration, but something to make sense of the freedoms we were already giving,” he said.

Earlier evidence heard that the scheme was not discussed in advance with scientific advisers, and that even Matt Hancock, then the health secretary, only knew about it on the day it was presented to cabinet. Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, referred to the scheme later as “eat out to help the virus”.

Questioned by Hugo Keith KC, the inquiry counsel, Johnson said he thought that Whitty and Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, “must” have know about eat out to help out.

“I’m fairly confident that it was discussed several times in meetings in which I believe they must have been present,” Johnson said. “I don’t understand how something so well-publicised as that could have been smuggled past the scientific advice – I don’t see how that could have happened.”

When Keith pointed out that even in his witness statement to the inquiry, Johnson still said he assumed the scheme had been discussed with Vallance and Whitty, the former prime minister replied: “I said that in my statement because I frankly assumed that it must have been discussed with them. And I’m perplexed as to how something as significant as that could have got through.”

As the hearing discussed delays to the second lockdown, Keith showed Johnson a series of extracts from Vallance’s contemporaneous diary, one of which recounted Johnson arguing in May 2020 that “we should let this rip a bit”.

Another extract, from August, said Johnson was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life”, while a third extract said he was “obsessed” with the average age of death from Covid being 82, saying: “Get Covid, live longer.”

Keith asked Johnson if these “secretly held” views were why he resisted a second lockdown, an idea that Johnson said was “completely wrong”.

His tone clearly angry, he said: “My position was that we had to save human life at all ages. That was the objective of the strategy, and by the way, that is what we did.

“It does not do justice to our thoughts, our feelings, my thoughts, my feelings, to say that we were remotely reconciled to fatalities … I had to challenge the consensus in the meetings. You’ve got to understand that these meetings comprised an overwhelming number of very, very talented, brilliant public health officials, civil servants, and scientists. Basically I had to speak for everybody who wasn’t in the meeting, and who wanted these points put to the scientists.”

Johnson’s testimony puts yet more pressure on Sunak, who is confirmed to be giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday.

Earlier evidence was heard that the £850m eat out to help out scheme was introduced without any consultation, leaving Vallance and others “blindsided”.

Sunak will face questions on why in his own witness statement, a short extract of which has been read out by Keith during earlier evidence, he said: “I do not recall any concerns about the scheme being expressed during ministerial discussions, including those attended by the CMO [Whitty] and CSA [Vallance].”

During his evidence, Vallance politely but firmly contradicted this, saying he would have been “very surprised” if Sunak had not known about scientific worries.