Rishi Sunak says he is ‘deeply sorry’ in testimony to Covid inquiry

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Rishi Sunak opened his evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry by saying he was “deeply sorry” to people who lost loved ones during the pandemic, and to all those who “suffered” as a result of actions the government took.

The UK prime minister said he had thought a lot about the policies the government enacted during the crisis and was giving evidence to the inquiry in the “spirit of constructive candour”.

Sunak will be forced to revisit and explain his flagship Eat Out to Help Out discount scheme during his appearance.

The inquiry has heard damning testimonies in recent weeks that have exposed chaos at the heart of the government as it struggled to respond to the rapid spread of Covid from early 2020.

But Sunak’s role as chancellor at the time and in particular the impact of the Eat Out to Help Out initiative on transmission rates has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks.

The scheme sought to boost the hospitality industry by subsidising consumers who dined out after months of staying away from restaurants and pubs. It has been partly blamed for triggering a new wave of the virus.

The inquiry is examining the government’s response to Covid and is due to run until the summer of 2026.

It has heard how senior scientific advisers were not consulted before the Treasury launched the policy in August 2020, leading some in government to privately refer to the then-chancellor as “Dr Death”.

Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer since 2019, privately characterised Sunak’s programme as “Eat Out to Help Out the Virus”, the inquiry has heard.

Among the other serious questions facing Sunak is the suggestion that he argued against the imposition of lockdown measures when the virus first hit in early 2020, and again during a second wave of infections in the autumn that year.

When the prime minister was asked about why the inquiry was not presented with WhatsApp messages from his phones, he said he had changed his phone multiple times and the messages “hadn’t come across”.

He noted that he was “not a prolific user of WhatsApp in the first instance”, and added that anything of significance that was sent via the social media app would have been recorded by civil servants.

Hugo Keith KC said that many of Sunak’s exchanges had been obtained from other people’s devices.