Sunak reportedly said 'just let people die' during pandemic

The Star

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quoted as saying the government should "just let people die" during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than impose a second national lockdown, the inquiry into how Britain handled the crisis heard on Monday (Nov 20).  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reportedly said the government should "just let people die"

00:06 during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than impose a second lockdown. That's according to Patrick

00:13 Valance, who testified on Monday as part of an inquiry into how Britain handled the crisis.

00:19 Valance was the government's chief scientific advisor during the pandemic. He made a note in

00:25 his diary on Oct. 25, 2020, about a meeting involving then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson

00:31 and Sunak, who was finance minister. The diary entry recorded how Dominic Cummings,

00:37 Johnson's most senior advisor at the time, relayed to Valance what he said he heard at the meeting.

00:43 Valance quoted Cummings in his diary as saying,

00:46 "Rishi thinks just let people die and that's okay. This all feels like a complete lack of leadership."

00:53 A spokesperson for Sunak said the prime minister would set out his position when he gives evidence

00:58 to the inquiry. Previous evidence has shown Sunak was branded as "Dr. Death" by one science advisor

01:05 for his policy in the summer of 2020, encouraging Britons to eat at pubs and restaurants.

01:10 Senior officials have repeatedly said the government was unprepared for the pandemic.

01:16 More than 220,000 people died in Britain, and large sections of the economy were shut down.

01:23 The inquiry is set to run until the summer of 2026.

01:28 [END]

Category

Transcript

Recommended