Government ministers were told not to go ‘too early’ with Covid restrictions amid fears the public might not accept them, Rishi Sunak has told the official inquiry.
The former chancellor, who was in charge of the UK’s economic response to the pandemic, revealed medical experts were ‘quite focused on getting the timing right’.
Mr Sunak said officials were ‘worried’ about Britons complying with social distancing rules for a ‘duration’ of time, ahead of the first full lockdown being imposed.
In his evidence to the inquiry on Monday, Mr Sunak also highlighted how scientific advice was ‘changing every couple of days’ in February and March 2020.
It comes after Covid inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett last month said a week-long delay in introducing the first lockdown led to 23,000 more deaths in England.
In her inquiry’s latest report on the government’s response to the pandemic, Baroness Hallett said the UK did not take Covid seriously enough until it was ‘too late’.
She also criticised a ‘toxic and chaotic culture’ at the centre of the UK government throughout the pandemic.
Mr Sunak, who went on to become prime minister in October 2022, was chancellor for the duration of the Covid crisis.
Government ministers were told not to go ‘too early’ with Covid restrictions amid fears the public might not accept them, Rishi Sunak told the official inquiry
The former chancellor, pictured arriving to give evience to the Covid inquiry on Monday, revealed medical experts were ‘quite focused on getting the timing right’
This saw him introduce a slew of measures to combat the economic shock resulting from the pandemic, including furlough.
Asked on Monday if, in early 2020, it was hoped the economic crisis might be short, Mr Sunak said: ‘I remember clearly at that time, especially those early conversations, a lot of what the medical and scientific community were advising us was not to go too early with the various interventions.
‘Because they were worried about public acceptance of them and they needed to maintain a duration. They were quite focused on getting the timing right.’
He added: ‘Things just kept escalating, things were put in place then, ultimately, even at the end that last few days, I think the prime minister said to people it was a voluntary social distancing.
‘And to avoid hospitality and leisure on the basis, on the advice from the scientists. And schools were not closed at first. Then the advice was that they should be closed. And that was followed, immediately.
‘And then even at that point, there was a belief that that voluntary social distancing, together with school closures, if there was, I think the number was 75 per cent compliance, would be sufficient to manage the virus, to deliver the health outcomes.
‘And then two or three days after that was said, it was decided that wasn’t going to be achievable, which is why you had to move to a full mandatory lockdown.
‘The health and scientific advice was changing every couple of days. That’s what characterised that period.’
Mr Sunak also told the inquiry it was not possible ‘to save every person’s job’ during the pandemic, but that the impact on employment turned out to be better than early expectations.
‘It wasn’t going to be possible to save every person’s job and people were going to experience economic hardship as a result of what was happening,’ he said.
‘I thought it was important to be honest with people about that up front.
‘As it turned out, the impact on living standards particularly for the most vulnerable in society… were stronger that I would have perhaps anticipated going into this and I’m very proud of that.’
Mr Sunak also said that the government was ‘successful in preventing mass unemployment’ and that the impact on jobs was ‘considerably better than what anyone had forecast at the early stages of the pandemic’.
The coronavirus job retention scheme, known as furlough, was announced by Mr Sunak as chancellor in March 2020.