LONDON (Reuters) – Former finance minister Rishi Sunak, one of two candidates to be Britain’s next prime minister, said it was a mistake to “empower” scientists during the coronavirus pandemic and that the negative effects of the lockdown were overwhelmed Suppressed.
The ruling Conservative Party is choosing a new leader after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to resign, with dozens of ministers resigning in protest over a series of scandals and missteps. Party members are voting for Sunak or Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Sunak said the government was “wrong to scare people” over the coronavirus. He said he was barred from discussing the “trade-offs” of implementing coronavirus-related restrictions, such as the impact on missed doctor’s appointments and extending the state-run National Health Service’s health waiting list.
“The script will never acknowledge them,” he told Audience Magazine. “The playbook is: ‘Oh, there’s no trade-off, because it’s good for our health, it’s good for the economy.'”
Sunak said involving about 50 scientists in the study was the wrong help The government’s scientific advisory panel on emergencies in response to the outbreak has so much influence on decisions like closing schools.
He said: “We should not authorize
When asked why polls showed the public aspires to the country in lockdown, Sunak said: “We Helped to shape this: Sending a message of fear”.
The UK under Johnson has been slower to lock down in early 2020 than most of its European counterparts. Experienced some of the highest fatalities at the start of the pandemic It later became the first major economy to reopen after the rate of At the heart of the difficult decision made.
Sunak, who resigned from Johnson’s government last month, said schools could have remained open during the pandemic. At a meeting, he said, he tried to Expressing his opposition to closing schools, saying he was “very emotional about it.”
“There was a lot of silence after that,” he said. “This is the first time anyone has said that. I’m so pissed.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Kate Holton)
