Detailed, unflustered, and consistent, Rishi Sunak’s early evidence to the Covid Inquiry was everything that Boris Johnson’s was not.
But just as the former PM tried to construct a political narrative from his testimony (did my best, got big calls right), the current PM clearly wanted to send his own political message too. In short, and by way of implication in contrast to Johnson, his approach to government was both professional and principled.
Although careful not to suggest that Johnson was the supermarket “trolley” or the catalogue of incompetence other witnesses have exposed, Sunak’s main aim seemed to be to tell the public and – just as importantly – Tory MPs that he was a lockdown sceptic throughout the pandemic.
From trying to justify the record tax burden that so upsets backbenchers (by saying it ultimately stemmed from pay for necessary spending on furlough) to his “constitutional” duty to try to protect jobs and livelihoods, the Prime Minister’s audience seemed to be the Commons Tea Room rather than the inquiry room.
Given his current woes with the right of his party, that’s perhaps no surprise. In the Venn Diagram of the backbenches, there’s a strong overlap between those who fear his Rwanda policy is not tough enough and those who loathed the economic and other impacts of Johnson’s lockdowns.
We have yet to see him questioned closely about his Eat Out To Help Out scheme, but Sunak appeared to be strongly leaning into his reputation as a “Dr Death” Chancellor (the phrase of the deputy chief scientific adviser) who was constantly pushing for economic effects to be considered alongside health effects. He also sidestepped suggestions that his pushing for earlier release from the first lockdown was “at the riskier end of the spectrum”.
But many critics firmly believe that Sunak did himself take reckless risks with public health – particularly by not seeking specific scientific advice about his meals subsidy scheme of August 2020.
Similarly, his talk about trying to protect jobs in retail and hospitality sectors (because that was “a matter of social justice”) may stick in the throats of the three million people left out of his furlough scheme and all those on low pay who were hit by his refusal to increase statutory sickness pay.
Sunak’s overall case seems to be that Johnson’s big mistake was not having a more open, “grown up” conversation with the public early on about the economic, educational and social impact of lockdowns. He has a valid case there, although given the health emergency at the start of the pandemic that may have not been heard.
His argument about the need to be honest about what he calls “trade offs” may have more weight if he’d done the same on Brexit, of which he was a big backer – and which still has double the hit to our GDP than even the pandemic did.
But most telling of all perhaps is that Sunak first fully road-tested in public his lockdown scepticism in the last stages of the Tory leadership race last summer. That was when he told The Spectator he had been the only person (while Liz Truss remained silent) in Cabinet meetings in mid and late-2020 arguing for a different approach.
What doesn’t help his case is that some in the party did indeed see it all as part of a plot to replace Johnson. And he has never fully explained why the “readyforrishi” leadership website was registered in December 2021 – just after “Partygate” stories first emerged.
The fact remains that even his desperate pitch to Tory members last summer failed to persuade party members that he wasn’t a back-stabber or a tax-raiser. His latest attempt to promote his own lockdown scepticism may be as similarly unsuccessful in getting Tory MPs – or the voters – on side.
Rishi Sunak's Covid inquiry evidence was squarely aimed at one group of MPs
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11.12.2023
Detailed, unflustered, and consistent, Rishi Sunak’s early evidence to the Covid Inquiry was everything that Boris Johnson’s was not.
But just as the former PM tried to construct a political narrative from his testimony (did my best, got big calls right), the current PM clearly wanted to send his own political message too. In short, and by way of implication in contrast to Johnson, his approach to government was both professional and principled.
Although careful not to suggest that Johnson was the supermarket “trolley” or the catalogue of incompetence other witnesses have exposed, Sunak’s main aim seemed to be to tell the public and – just as importantly – Tory MPs that he was a lockdown sceptic throughout the pandemic.
From trying to justify the record tax burden that so upsets backbenchers (by saying it ultimately stemmed from pay for necessary spending on furlough) to his “constitutional” duty to try to protect........
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