Rishi Sunak will be challenged at the COVID inquiry on claims that government scientists branded him “Dr Death” – and called his scheme to kickstart the economy “Eat Out to Help Out the Virus”.
The inquiry has also been told that Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser in Downing Street at the time, claimed Mr Sunak’s view of COVID was: “Just let people die and that’s okay.”
Mr Sunak, who was chancellor during the pandemic, is the final witness to take the stand in the current phase of the inquiry – following on from Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:25
Johnson recalls time in ICU
The inquiry’s lead counsel Hugo Keith KC – who like Mr Sunak was educated at Winchester and Oxford – is expected to give the current prime minister a torrid time after a tetchy clash with Mr Johnson last week.
Mr Keith has been nicknamed “Hugo Hindsight” and accused of a “knifing hapless public servants” at the inquiry, and being obsessed with X-rated language used in WhatsApp messages sent during the crisis.
The “Dr Death” slur against Mr Sunak was said to have been made by Angela McLean, now the government’s chief scientific adviser, while the attack over Eat Out to Help Out was made by chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty.
More from Politics
The “let people die” claim attributed to Mr Cummings appeared in the diary entries of former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, who has been strongly critical of Mr Sunak in his evidence to the inquiry.
Mr Sunak will be questioned on claims that Eat Out to Help Out led to a spike in COVID cases and excess deaths – and that scientists were not consulted before it was launched.
Advertisement
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:12
2020: Sunak explains Eat Out to Help Out
But in a defiant witness statement to the inquiry, the PM insisted: “Any suggestion that Eat Out to Help Out caused the second wave of infections is not borne out with reference to the discussions at the time.”
Michael Gove strongly defended Mr Sunak on Sky News yesterday.
On Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, he was asked about Sir Patrick Vallance’s claim that Eat Out to Help Out almost certainly increased the number of excess deaths.
Mr Gove said: “That’s Patrick’s view and I have enormous respect for Sir Patrick, having worked with him closely.
“However, I think it’s important to say that the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was announced a month before it was implemented and in the period post-announcement and pre-implementation, it was not the case that there was a public critique of it.
“It was an effective way of ensuring that the hospitality industry was supported through a very difficult period. And it was entirely within the broad outlines of rules about social mixing that prevailed at the time.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:33
2020: Sunak tries to be a waiter
In his evidence, former deputy chief medical officer Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam said Eat Out to Help Out – which provided 50% off the cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks – “didn’t feel sensible” because it was encouraging exactly what officials had been trying to stop in previous months.
Mr Sunak is also expected to be asked about lockdown-sceptic views he expressed during the 2022 Tory leadership election campaign, when he claimed too much power was given to government scientists.
He had told the Spectator magazine in August 2022: “We shouldn’t have empowered the scientists in the way we did. And you have to acknowledge trade-offs from the beginning.
“If we’d done all of that we could be in a very different place. We’d probably have made different decisions on things like schools, for example.
“Could a more frank discussion have helped Britain avoid lockdown entirely, as Sweden did? I don’t know, but it could have been shorter. Different. Quicker.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:55
‘Sorry’ Johnson heckled
In that interview, Mr Sunak also claimed many of his objections to draconian COVID rules were met with a “big silence” from government colleagues.
“Those meetings were literally me around that table, just fighting. It was incredibly uncomfortable, every single time,” he said.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
One of Sir Patrick’s diary entries said of Mr Sunak at a meeting: “Pushes very hard for faster opening up and fuller opening up, getting rid of all restrictions. Repeats his mantra: ‘We either believe in the vaccine or we don’t.'”
Mr Sunak may also face questions over his WhatsApp messages, or lack of them.
He has told the inquiry that “having changed my phone a number of times over the last three years” he no longer has access to them.
Social media companies must face tough sanctions if they fail to keep children safe from harmful content, the technology secretary has said.
Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Peter Kyle said age verification for adult material would have to be “watertight”, and that apps which do not protect children will face heavy fines and even jail time for company bosses.
He was talking ahead of new requirements, to be announced by the regulator Ofcom in mid-January, for platforms to protect children from a wide range of harmful content including bullying, violence, and dangerous stunts.
Apps for adults only will also be required to introduce tighter age verification, via a credit card or ID.
Mr Kyle said: “If they allow the children who are under the age that is appropriate, to view content, then they can face heavy fines and, in some circumstances, they’ll face prison sentences.
“This is the kind of direction of travel you’re going to have with me because I want to make sure kids are kept safe. These are not rules and powers that I’m bringing in just to sit on a shelf.
“These are powers that we’re bringing in for a purpose. At the moment, I accept that parents don’t believe that their kids are safe online because too often they’re not.”
More on Labour
Related Topics:
‘Not enough research’
Mr Kyle said he was “in admiration of what these companies have created” and that lots of organisations, including the government, could learn from the tech sector.
But he added: “I do have a real deep frustration and yes, that could be called anger when it comes to the fact that not enough research has been produced about the impact their products have.
“If I was producing a product that was going to be used ubiquitously throughout society that I knew that children as young as five are going to be accessing it, I would want to be pretty certain that it’s not having a negative impact on young people.”
The Online Safety Act was passed in October 2023 and is being implemented in stages. It will allow companies to be fined up to £18m, or 10% of turnover as well as criminal charges.
In December, the regulator Ofcom set out which content is illegal – including sexual exploitation, fraud and drug and weapons offences.
Mr Kyle said he has no plans for one at this stage, as he met a group of teenagers from across the country at the NSPCC children’s charity to talk about their experiences online.
Some mentioned the “addictiveness” of social media, and coming across “distressing” content. But all were against a ban, highlighting the positives for learning, and of online communities.
The UK chief medical officers reviewed the evidence on harm to children from “screen-based activities” – including social media and gaming – in 2019.
Their report found associations with anxiety and depression, but not enough evidence to prove a causal link. It backed a minimum age of 13 for using these apps.
But the technology secretary has commissioned more research to look at the issue again by next summer, as countries including France and Norway have raised the minimum age to 14 or 15.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:17
More social media restrictions for under-16s?
Children ‘getting dopamine hits’
Ofcom research last year found nearly a quarter of five-to-seven-year-olds have their own smartphone, with two in five using messaging services such as WhatsApp despite it having a minimum age of 13.
By the time they are 11, more than 90 percent of children have a smartphone.
Lee Fernandes, a psychotherapist specialising in addiction, told Sky News at his London clinic that he has been increasingly treating screen addiction in young adults, some of whose problems began in their teenage years.
“In the last five years, I’ve seen a big increase in addictions relating to technology,” he said.
“I think everyone just thinks it’s mindless scrolling, but we’re habituating children’s minds to be stimulated from using these phones and they’re getting these hits of dopamine, these rewards.”
Social media companies privately say teenagers use over 50 apps a week and argue that app stores should develop a “one-stop shop” rather than ID checks for each individual app.
Some platforms already require teenagers to prove their age through a video selfie or ID check if they attempt to change their age to over-18.
There are also AI models being developed to detect under-18s pretending to be adults. Specific teen accounts by providers including Meta restrict certain messages and content.
A man who was hit in the crotch by a flying brick during a riot in Southport has been jailed.
Brian Spencer was sentenced to two years and six months behind bars after pleading guilty to violent disorder at Liverpool Crown Court.
The unrest happened on 30 July, the day after a mass stabbing targeting children in the Merseyside town in which three young girls were killed. The riot was fuelled by online disinformation about the attack.
Footage shared widely on social media showed Spencer walking up to a line of riot police and putting his hands on his hips before gyrating in front of the officers.
The 40-year-old, from Southport, was then struck in the chest and head by bricks before turning around and walking back towards the crowd.
As he held his head, another brick hit him in the groin and he then hobbled away.
‘Throwing wheelie bins’
Merseyside Police said: “Spencer could be seen acting in an aggressive manner and part of a large group of people who were standing only a few yards in front of officers and throwing bricks.
“He could also be seen on footage punching a police vehicle several times and picking up and throwing wheelie bins at officers and carriers.”
The force also said that later that evening, officers were called to a separate incident where Spencer was, and took him to hospital to be treated for the head injury.
The officers recognised him from the viral footage and he was arrested.
Spencer ‘racially abused patient’
While receiving treatment for his injury, Spencer racially abused another patient at Southport Hospital, police said.
He was also jailed after admitting racially/religiously aggravated harassment.
Some 163 people have now been arrested by Merseyside Police in connection with the disorder, with 117 charges brought and 88 people sentenced to a total of 182 years and four months in prison between them.
Detective Inspector Paula Jones said: “The actions of the people who took part in the disorder were extremely serious and many officers were injured during the despicable scenes as bricks, bins and other missiles were thrown at them.
“Spencer was involved in the violence and will now spend a significant amount of time in prison.”
The founder of an organisation which helps people affected by homelessness has told Sky News that Britain’s rough sleeping crisis is continuing to grow.
Zakia Moulaoui, who started Invisible Cities eight years ago, says many of the resources set up to help the homeless are also seeing their ability to help squeezed when they are needed most.
Invisible Cities is a community interest company that trains people who have experienced homelessness to become walking tour guides of their own city.
It encourages guides to offer personal tours, highlighting stories of real people and raising awareness of social justice.
Speaking at one of its training sessions in Manchester, Zakia said the Christmas period was often the hardest for those experiencing homelessness.
“Having started Invisible Cities in 2016 and compared to now, there’s definitely a rise in the number of people on that journey of homelessness, not only rough sleeping or street homeless, but at any one point in hostels, sofa surfing, in shelters and things like that,” she said.
“At the same time, organisations that exist to support people are more and more strained, funding is smaller and people are at capacity.”
More on Homelessness
Related Topics:
What does the data say?
Figures released in November showed that, for the second year in a row, England reported an increase in rough sleeping.
The number was up 27% on the previous year.
The number of people sleeping rough is now 61% higher than it was 10 years ago, and 120% higher than when data collection began in 2010.
‘It’s been a rollercoaster ride’
Stephen Agnew, who became homeless as a 10-year-old and spent three decades sleeping rough, now works as one of the Invisible Cities tour guides.
He said: “It has been a rollercoaster ride, it has been ups and downs, but it has been amazing to come out the other end from where I was as a kid to become a tour guide and to get my own place.
“It is just such a different aspect to my childhood.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:52
Homeless mum of three: ‘I have nowhere to go’
Invisible Cities currently works with guides in Manchester, York, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Cardiff and has plans to expand to more cities.
Its aim is to help build confidence and public speaking skills in guides and also offer tourists the chance to see a side of a city they otherwise might not have.
‘It helps if you have a goal’
Sky News joined tour guide Andy Mercer for a walk around Manchester.
After a period sleeping rough, he lived in a friend’s garage before finding a way out of homelessness.
He said: “It helps if you have a goal. If you really have nothing and somebody offers you an opportunity, then have a go.
“If you think you might be good at it, if you like talking to the public, then it might be worth having a go.”
As for the tourists he guides around Manchester, he said they “appreciate the fact that I seem to enjoy it because it brings back good memories”.
In his tours, he recounts his stories of the city’s nightlife scene from the 1980s onwards. He says he aims to draw attention to the link that often exists between alcoholism and homelessness.