The former prime minister says he had assumed Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance had been briefed and denied the UK had been locked down too late in 2020.
Boris Johnson said at Covid inquiry that he assumed Rishi Sunak’s “eat out to help” hospitality scheme had been authorised by government scientists and was then shocked to learn that was not the case.
In evidence that could pose notable difficulties for Sunak 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 he had assumed this was the case.
Johnson denied his government had started lockdown too late in the spring and autumn of 2020, saying other measures were already in place and new Covid variants had “not been budgeted for”.
Asked about Sunak’s plan, which subsidized other people to eat in restaurants and cafes, Johnson said the plan was “within the risk budget” given the fall in infection rates that summer.
“The moment it was relayed to me, it wasn’t presented to me as an acceleration, but as something that would give meaning to the freedoms we were already granting,” he said.
Previous tests revealed that the draft had not previously been discussed with clinical advisers and that even Matt Hancock, then fitness secretary, did not know about it until the day it was presented to the cabinet. Chris Whitty, England’s top medical official, called the program “eating out to help the virus. “
Questioned through Hugo Keith KC, the lawyer in charge of the investigation, Johnson said he thought Whitty and Vallance, the government’s top clinical adviser, “should” have known about the plan.
“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 testimony as a witness in the inquest, Johnson had said he assumed the task had been discussed with Vallance and Whitty, the former prime minister responded: “I said that in my statement because, frankly, I assumed they must have been discussed with them, and I have no words to explain how something so vital could have happened.
Johnson’s testimony puts yet more pressure on Sunak, who is confirmed to be giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday.
It has been claimed that the £850 million recovery plan for assistance was presented without any consultation, leaving Vallance and others “blind”.
Sunak will face questions as to why, in his own witness statement, a brief excerpt of which was read through Keith in earlier testimony, he said: “I don’t recall any consideration of allocation expressed in ministerial discussions, adding those attended through the CMO [Whitty] and the 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.
Sunak was more widely portrayed as overly enthusiastic about opening up the economy, and was referred to in a derogatory message at the time by some other senior scientist as “Dr Death the Chancellor”.