UK: Rishi Sunak defends his handling of Covid-19 when he was finance minister
The British Prime Minister spent his day in front of the public inquiry into the management of the pandemic. Rishi Sunak was Boris Johnson's economy minister during the first lockdowns and he has to explain his aid programmes, in particular the one to encourage Britons to return to restaurants in the summer of 2020.
Rishi Sunak during his hearing by the UK's Covid-19 Committee of Inquiry in London on December 11, 2023. AP - UK COVID-19 Inquiry
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With our correspondent in London, Émeline Vin
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The economy ministry was not a death squad," said Rishi Sunak, the finance minister at the start of the pandemic. His mission, at the time, was to make the interest of British finances weigh in the face of health measures. Hence the "Eat out to help out" programme, a large-scale loan to support the hospitality sector after the first lockdown.
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My priority was to protect millions of jobs for people working in this vulnerable sector. All the data, all the studies carried out by companies showed that without action on our part, many of these jobs would have been threatened," the Prime Minister defended himself.
However, this reopening has been accompanied by a new spike in transmission. Doctors who have already been heard by the committee denounce a lack of listening on the part of Rishi Sunak at the time.
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Almost a month passed between the announcement of the program and its beginning! One month for scientists to voice their concerns. They've had many opportunities to do that, either with me or with the Prime Minister, and I don't remember (and neither do the meeting minutes) anyone saying anything," Sunak said
The former chancellor also denies trying to short-circuit scientists who were advocating new lockdowns to then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The investigation, without judicial powers, is expected to continue for several more years.
Read alsoUnited Kingdom: Boris Johnson questioned on his management of the Covid pandemic
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