Rishi Sunak pushed hard for lifting of Covid rules, inquiry hears
Rishi Sunak pushed “very hard” for a lifting of all lockdown restrictions during a government meeting in July 2021 where Boris Johnson referred to people as “malingering” and “workshy”, the Covid inquiry has heard
The then chancellor and prime minister were pitted against the “more cautious” approach of Michael Gove and Sajid Javid during the meeting, which took place at a time when Covid-19 cases and hospital admissions were rising again, according to a diary entry by the former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
“PM looks downbeat and talks of grim predictions. Saj [Sajid Javid] says ‘we are going to have to learn to live with it’, ‘and die with it’, PM says,” the entry read.
Javid, who was the health secretary from June 2021, told the inquiry on Wednesday it was “possible” that Johnson had said the words attributed to him.
“The prime minister in these meetings often said things that were hard to determine what he actually thought versus a joke. Even when you were discussing something as important as this,” he said.
The same entry recorded: “Cx [the chancellor, Sunak] pushes very hard for faster opening up and fuller opening up. Getting rid of all restrictions. Repeats his mantra ‘we either believe in the Vx [vaccine] or we don’t’. I pointed out we would be facing a lockdown now if it was not for the Vx.”
It also noted apparent fretting on the part of Johnson about the options facing the government and how he viewed trade unions.
“He says he wants everyone back at work ‘we can’t have the bollocks of consulting with employees and trade unions. They need to come back to work. All the malingering workshy people,’” it read.
“Basically it is PM and Cx against a more cautious Gove and Saj. PM in a bad mood. End by joking ‘please record that you have overcome my natural caution and bullied me into opening up’.”
Vallance concluded in the entry that the whole meeting was “political posturing” and that civil service officials were worried. He said he and the chief medical officer for England, Sir Chris Whitty, had made the risks “very clear”.
Another extract from Vallance’s diaries, from 30 June 2021 – four days after Javid was appointed health secretary – recorded discussions about restrictions on schoolchildren involving Johnson, Gavin Williamson, then the education secretary, and Gove, then chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
“They start to make policy on the hoof with the Saj and Williamson jostling for dominance and airtime,” Vallance wrote, adding that it was Gove who was “most logical”.
The entry added: “[…] said afterwards that he is very worried by his new SoS [secretary of state] ‘never wants to learn before a decision’ and that he will rush into a macho rightwing decisions playing to the audience …’.”
The counsel to the inquiry, Joanne Cecil, asked Javid: “We don’t know who says this … does that characterisation, from your perspective, fit what you were doing at that point?” Javid replied: “No.”
Earlier, the inquiry discussed the witness statement provided by Javid, in which he said he resigned as chancellor in February 2020 after feeling that Johnson was “not in charge” and that Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, was “running the government”.
“I would say during my time as chancellor I considered he sought to act as the prime minister in all but name and he tried to make all key decisions within No 10 – not the prime minister,” the statement said. “I felt that the elected prime minister was not in charge of what was happening in his name.”