COVID inquiry: Rishi Sunak says advisers had ‘ample opportunity’ to raise concerns over Eat Out – Sunak
Medical advisers were not consulted about the Eat Out to Help Out scheme as it was deemed a “micro” policy, according to Rishi Sunak.
The prime minister is appearing before the UK’s COVID inquiry, as part of its module on governmental decision-making in the pandemic.
He is giving evidence about his time as chancellor.
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The scheme was introduced on August 3 2020 – at the end of the first COVID lockdown – to provide discounts of up to 50% off the cost of food and alcoholic drinks at relevant restaurants, cafes and pubs from Monday to Wednesday – until August 31.
In October, the inquiry heard how one scientific adviser branded Mr Sunak “Dr Death” over the scheme.
Hugo Keith KC, the counsel for the inquiry, asked Mr Sunak about the process leading to the formation of the policy.
The prime minister said it was designed in the context of indoor hospitality already being opened – which he said was already announced – and including mitigating factors like one-way systems, contactless payments and one metre distancing.
He said Eat Out was a “micro policy” that would not require extra modelling, and was about encouraging people to use restaurants that were already deemed safe.
Mr Sunak said: “It was done very much in that context and in the same way that other economic decisions like a VAT cut for hospitality or a stamp duty card or indeed furlough or anything else or grants for the hospitality industry wouldn’t ordinarily be cleared with medical advisers, nor was it because we had already made the collective decision to reopen indoor hospitality.”
The prime minister was asked why no questions about the policy were raised after it was first announced, having not consulted on it first with medical advisers.
Mr Sunak said it was the responsibility of scientific and medical advisers to raise their concerns about the policy if they had an issue with it – even if it had already been announced by the government.
Asked about the issues raised by Sir Chris Whitty, Sir Patrick Valance and others, Mr Sunak said: “The onus is surely on the people who now believe that it was a risk to have raised it at the time when something could have been done about it if they felt strongly.”
He said that other departments and the devolved administrations were not consulted on the scheme as it was market sensitive.
Mr Sunak added: “This was a very reasonable, sensible policy intervention to help safeguard those jobs in that safe reopening. That was my view.
“I didn’t believe that it was a risk. I believe it was the right thing to do.
“But if others are suggesting that they didn’t, they had ample opportunity to raise those concerns in forums where I was there, or where the Prime Minister or others were, and they didn’t.
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Johnson was known as a ‘trolley’ because he would change direction
Key moments of Johnson’s inquiry evidence
Apology
The prime minister began his evidence by apologising.
“I just wanted to start by saying how deeply sorry I am to all of those who lost loved ones, family members, through the pandemic,” he said.
“And also all those who suffered in various different ways throughout the pandemic and as a result of the actions that were taken.”
Mr Keith and Mr Sunak spent much of the morning going through how choices were made in government.
Mr Sunak emphasised that it was Boris Johnson – as prime minister – who was ultimately responsible for making choices about the UK’s direction, and he would give input about the economy as chancellor.
Speaking about the government’s changing of course in the lead-up to the first lockdown, Mr Sunak said public health considerations were of primary concern, and that Mr Johnson acted largely on advice from SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) – which itself would change.
The-then chancellor said he did not feel shut out and had adequate access to Mr Johnson.
WhatsApp messages
At the start of his evidence, the prime minister had to defend the fact he was unable to supply any of his WhatsApp messages from the pandemic to the inquiry.
The prime minister said he had changed phones numerous times since the pandemic began, and the messages had not moved between his devices.
Mr Keith raised an article in The Spectator magazine, published last year, in which Mr Sunak was interviewed. This article suggested Mr Sunak privately lobbied Mr Johnson and tried not to “leave a paper trail”.
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Mr Sunak said he would write to Mr Johnson when necessary – and as neighbours they would regularly speak informally, for example when they were in the garden of Downing Street with their families.
He added that he saw Mr Johnson more than his wife in the early days of COVID due to the length of time spent working.
Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, in her first interview since being briefed on the scale of the fiscal black hole she faces.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well,” the chancellor said when asked how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges in her 26 November statement.
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Ms Reeves was shown the first draft of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report, revealing the size of the black hole she must fill next month, on Friday 3 October.
She has never previously publicly confirmed tax rises are on the cards in the budget, going out of her way to avoid mentioning tax in interviews two weeks ago.
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Chancellor pledges not to raise VAT
Cabinet ministers had previously indicated they did not expect future spending cuts would be used to ensure the chancellor met her fiscal rules.
Ms Reeves also responded to questions about whether the economy was in a “doom loop” of annual tax rises to fill annual black holes. She appeared to concede she is trapped in such a loop.
Asked if she could promise she won’t allow the economy to get stuck in a doom loop cycle, Ms Reeves replied: “Nobody wants that cycle to end more than I do.”
She said that is why she is trying to grow the economy, and only when pushed a third time did she suggest she “would not use those (doom loop) words” because the UK had the strongest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year.
What’s facing Reeves?
Ms Reeves is expected to have to find up to £30bn at the budget to balance the books, after a U-turn on winter fuel and welfare reforms and a big productivity downgrade by the OBR, which means Britain is expected to earn less in future than previously predicted.
Yesterday, the IMF upgraded UK growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 1.3% of GDP this year – but also trimmed its forecast by 0.1% next year, also putting it at 1.3%.
The UK growth prospects are 0.4 percentage points worse off than the IMF’s projects last autumn. The 1.3% GDP growth would be the second-fastest in the G7, behind the US.
Last night, the chancellor arrived in Washington for the annual IMF and World Bank conference.
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The big issues facing the UK economy
‘I won’t duck challenges’
In her Sky News interview, Ms Reeves said multiple challenges meant there was a fresh need to balance the books.
“I was really clear during the general election campaign – and we discussed this many times – that I would always make sure the numbers add up,” she said.
“Challenges are being thrown our way – whether that is the geopolitical uncertainties, the conflicts around the world, the increased tariffs and barriers to trade. And now this (OBR) review is looking at how productive our economy has been in the past and then projecting that forward.”
She was clear that relaxing the fiscal rules (the main one being that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to rely on taxation alone, not borrowing) was not an option, making tax rises all but inevitable.
“I won’t duck those challenges,” she said.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”
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Blame it on the B word?
Ms Reeves also lay responsibility for the scale of the black hole she’s facing at Brexit, along with austerity and the mini-budget.
This could risk a confrontation with the party’s own voters – one in five (19%) Leave voters backed Labour at the last election, playing a big role in assuring the party’s landslide victory.
The chancellor said: “Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy.
“Already, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit.
“Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme, but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long-lasting.”
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