- THE GUARDIAN - Nadeem Badshah - AUG 24, 2022 -
Ex-chancellor admits being furious about school closures, adding trade-offs of lockdowns were not properly considered by experts
Rishi Sunak has claimed that it was a mistake to “empower scientists” during the coronavirus pandemic and that his opposition to closing schools was met with silence during one meeting.
The Conservative leadership candidate believes one of the major errors was allowing the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) to have so much influence on decision making such as closing nurseries, schools and colleges in March 2020.
Sunak also disclosed that he was banned from discussing the “trade-offs” of imposing coronavirus-related restrictions such as missed doctor’s appointments and NHS waiting list backlogs.
In an interview with the Spectator to be published on Saturday, the former chancellor said: “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.”
Schools in the UK shut with the exception of those for looking after the children of keyworkers and vulnerable children. Some schools started to reopen in August 2020.
Sunak’s remarks came a few days after he praised British scientists and pledged to set up a multibillion-pound research programme if he became prime minister after the exclusion of British scientists from EU funding.
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