But it got worse and worse. And the finale, after nearly two hours, was excruciating for Mr Sunak when the inquiry chairman, Sir Brian Langstaff, delivered a powerful lecture that had the PM squirming in his seat.
Actions rather than words were needed, said Sir Brian – a retired judge who has been credited with chairing this inquiry brilliantly.
It was a powerful climax to an afternoon of tension and tetchiness.
In a devastating call for the PM to act on paying compensation without more delay, Sir Brian declared: “Because if it troubles my conscience, I would think it will trouble the conscience of a caring government.”
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Ouch!
It was emotional, it was dramatic and it was greeted by a rousing round of applause by the public in the giant hotel ballroom. A chastened and embarrassed Mr Sunak appeared to sink even lower into his seat.
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Image: Sir Brian Langstaff delivered a very powerful message to the prime minister during his evidence session
Throughout Sir Brian’s stirring final words, Mr Sunak had sat like a naughty schoolboy being given a stern lecture by the headmaster.
The best he could say in response at the end was rather feebly to repeat his opening statement, that the blood scandal had been appalling – a statement of the obvious that will have done nothing to reassure those affected by it.
The heckling had come when the PM told the grieving families their long wait for compensation would have to continue.
There were no assurances or promises of a timetable about when the government will pay up.
We’d already seen the tetchy and prickly side to the PM’s character when he appeared before the Liaison Committee of senior MPs in the Commons three weeks ago.
At the beginning of that hearing, he haughtily announced he had a “pressing engagement” – which turned out to be nothing more than a photocall – in 90 minutes’ time.
And throughout that shifty and evasive performance at the committee, Mr Sunak gave the impression he wished he was somewhere else and couldn’t be bothered.
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‘You haven’t read the report?’
But that was nothing compared to his grumpy and at times surly manner here before the inquiry, in which his derisory body language revealed he was hating every minute.
Once again, like at the Liaison Committee, his answers were evasive. He wouldn’t give any pledges on compensation or promise legislation in the next King’s Speech due in November.
This time, instead of MPs, the PM faced just one interrogator – the counsel to the inquiry, the formidable Jenni Richards KC.
Unlike the theatrical and flamboyant KCs of the criminal courts, there’s nothing flashy about Ms Richards. But she’s just as effective and her probing got right under the PM’s skin.
He shuffled around in his seat, avoided eye contact with her as she asked her questions, looked down at his lap where perhaps he had a phone or iPad hidden from view.
When Sir Brian briefly mentioned the media, Mr Sunak glared at the press benches in the hall.
And, at one point, as the questioning got more and more uncomfortable, horror of horrors, the prime minister appeared to look at his watch. Surely not?
There were no pressing engagements – or even a photocall – to let him escape this time.
It’s never a good look. And an absolute no-no for politicians under pressure.
It was claimed George Bush Senior never recovered from looking at his watch during a TV debate with Bill Clinton in 1992.
Sir Brian’s dramatic peroration, on the other hand, will have enhanced his already well-established reputation as a dedicated and distinguished public servant who takes no prisoners when he’s in the chair.
His impressive chairmanship will also be seen as having created a model for the potentially devastating COVID inquiry to come.
And Mr Sunak will certainly need to be on top of the detail and less evasive when he appears before that inquiry.
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Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Image: Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Image: Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Image: Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Image: Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.