Covid inquiry live: Rishi Sunak thought it was okay to let people die, Dominic Cummings claims

Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries revealed an extraordinary call with top government advisers during the pandemic which paint a picture of the “shambles” in Downing Street, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief scientific adviser said somebody was “clearly not on mute” and had a baby crying in the background. In his pandemic diaries, he said: “She then starts singing ‘the wheels on the bus’ – somehow symbolic of the shambles.”

Sir Patrick said he had been dropped from a press conference in favour of then chancellor Rishi Sunak. “Good. They need to understand and own the decisions they are making,” he wrote.

And responding to the government asking him to “approve the measures knowing that it is not enough”, he said the government was guilty of a “massive abrogation of responsibility”.

On the October 2020 call, Sir Patrick recalled Boris Johnson saying the package to be announced was “unlikely” to bring infections back under control.

Sir Patrick Vallance has said it is “highly likely” that Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme increased the number of Covid deaths, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief scientific adviser, who earlier said he was not told about the policy until it was announced, said he had “no doubt” that ministers would have known it would increase transmission of the virus.

In the days before the first national lockdown, Boris Johnson considered just “levelling with the public and saying we will toughen it out and tell them there will be deaths”, the Covid inquiry has heard, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former prime minister made the comments at a meeting in March 2020, according to Sir Patrick Vallance’s notes.

Simon Case said Boris Johnson wanted “mutually incompatible things” during the pandemic, Sir Patrick’s diaries reveal, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief scientific adviser recorded a private conversation in which Mr Johnson’s former permanent secretary made the remark.

It came after the Covid inquiry heard Sir Patrick’s frustration at Mr Johnson changing position from day to day.

The former chief scientific adviser also said Mr Johnson was “influenced a lot by the press”.

He made the comment when describing a diary entry in which he said Mr Johnson was a “weak and indecisive” prime minister.

Asked about the comment, he said it was written in “a late night moment of frustration”. But he added: “I do think that the Prime Minister was influenced a lot by the press.”

Dominic Cummings said Rishi Sunak thought “just let people die and that’s okay” during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries reveal, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief scientific adviser made the note of what Mr Cummings said during a meeting in October 2020.

Boris Johnson wanted to “let the pandemic rip” in October 2020, accepting that it would lead to more casualties but old people had “had a good innings”, Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries reveal, Archie Mitchell reports.

The bombshell notes detail a meeting with the PM in which he argued for the lifting of restrictions and said most people who die “have reached their time anyway”.

“I really don’t want to do another national lockdown,” Mr Johnson said, according to Sir Patrick’s diaries.

Sir Patrick said: “This all feels like a complete lack of leadership.”

Sir Patrick Vallance is the latest top adviser to accuse Matt Hancock of repeatedly saying things that were untrue during the pandemic, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief scientific adviser told the Covid inquiry: “He had a habit of saying things which he didn’t have a basis for, and he would say them too enthusiastically too early, without the evidence to back them up and then have to backtrack from them. days later.”

“I don’t know to what extent that was sort of over enthusiasm versus deliberate. I think a lot of it was over and over enthusiasm, but he definitely said things which surprised me because I knew the evidence base, wasn’t there,” he added.

Boris Johnson was “very sceptical” about long-Covid and compared it to Gulf War Syndrome, Sir Patrick Vallance said in his pandemic diaries, Archie Mitchell reports.

Gulf War syndrome is a medical condition which struck veterans of the 1991 war, with symptoms including fatigue, chronic headaches, and skin and respiratory disorders.

Abuse was “very real” for scientific advisors working alongside the government during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance said, Zander Butler reports.

Responding to a question from the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s chair Baroness Hallett, Sir Patrick insisted abuse was widespread despite not being a minister.

In one case, Sir Patrick’s colleague professor Chris Whitty was accosted while walking through a central London park after being recognised from Covid press conferences broadcast on TV.

Jonathan Chew, 24, and Lewis Hughes, 24, approached England’s chief medical officer in St James’s Park in June 2021 and grabbed hold of him and shouted in his face.

Sir Patrick Vallance has said it was “unhelpful” when Covid press conferences became overtly political, but that he was willing to publicly disagree with ministers, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former chief scientific adviser said it “worked best” when ministers or prime minister Boris Johnson would handle political questions.

And he said there were occasions when he and Sir Chris Whitty disagreed with government decisions from the podium.

“For example, in the move from the two metre rule to a lower figure, I was clear on the podium two metres is safer than one metre, full stop,” he said.