UK PM Hopeful Sunak: UK Govt Gagged Opposition to ‘The Scientists’ During Covid

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak attends a virtual press conference insid
TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

One of the two candidates vying to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, said that it was wrong to have “empowered” unelected scientists during the Chinese coronavirus crisis, but claimed that he was gagged by the administration from publicly airing his objections to lockdown measures.

Prime ministerial hopeful Rishi Sunak, who is currently trailing significantly in the polling against his opponent in the Conservative leadership race, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, has come out against the scientific establishment and the lockdown restrictions that were imposed at their behest in Britain.

“We shouldn’t have empowered the scientists in the way we did,” Sunak told The Spectator. “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.”

The former Chancellor of the Exchequer said that one area in particular where he pushed back against the lockdown movement was the decision to close schools, despite children being less susceptible to serious cases of the Wuhan virus.

Claiming that he was “very emotional about it,” Sunak relayed objections he allegedly said during a government meeting: “I was like: ‘Forget about the economy – surely we can all agree that kids not being in school is a major nightmare.

“There was a big silence afterwards. It was the first time someone had said it. I was so furious.”

The Tory leadership hopeful went on to allege that the minutes from meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) were altered to remove opposing opinions from what the public saw, saying: “Those meetings were literally me around that table, just fighting. It was incredibly uncomfortable every single time.”

Claiming that he was gagged from speaking out in public against the measures, Sunak said that he “wasn’t allowed to talk about” his concerns about trade-offs in public, adding: “The script was not to ever acknowledge them. The script was: oh, there’s no trade-off, because doing this for our health is good for the economy.”

Some have expressed scepticism over Sunak’s newly found opposition to lockdowns, particularly given his prominent role in subsidising people to stay home and businesses to remain shuttered during his time as the de facto top man at the Treasury.

Martin Daubney, a former Member of European Parliament (MEP) and current deputy leader of the Reclaim Party, said: “Sunak claims he was ‘gagged’ over negative effects of COVID lockdowns & SAGE had too much power.

“It’s a choice to be ‘gagged’. A courageous politician would’ve spoken out. Sunak didn’t — because like 99 per cent of them he’s a coward.”

Mr Sunak, one of the richest men in the House of Commons through his marriage to an Indian industrial heiress, has been struggling in the polling among the membership of the Conservative Party, many of whom have already cast their ballot in the leadership race to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader.

The former Treasury chief has argued that taxes need to remain high in order to pay down the exorbitant debt accrued during the lockdowns, despite taxes reaching a seven-decade high under his leadership and a growing cost of living crisis with rampant inflation.

Sunak has also been unable to shake the label of Brutus to Boris Johnson — who still enjoys widespread support within the party membership — with his resignation, alongside that of former Health Secretary Sajid Javid, ultimately sparking a wave of ministerial rebellions that forced Johnson to step down in July.

A Downing Street spokesman defended the government’s handling of the coronavirus, saying: “Throughout the pandemic, public health, education, and the economy were central to the difficult decisions made on COVID restrictions to protect the British public from an unprecedented novel virus.

“At every point, ministers made collective decisions which considered a wide range of expert advice available at the time in order to protect public health.

“The UK government spent over £400bn to support people, families, and their livelihoods throughout our response to the pandemic, which included the fastest lifesaving vaccine rollout in Europe.”

Despite some accusing Sunak of attacking the lockdown regime as a callous political play to save his floundering campaign, it is notable given his close ties, including business ties through his father-in-law, to the World Economic Forum (WEF), which has been seen as one of the leading champions of lockdowns throughout the crisis.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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