Covid Inquiry: Clash between cash and coronavirus
Giving evidence at the Covid Inquiry, Rishi Sunak denies referring to the economic consequences of the pandemic and public health as a “clash”. The prime minister says he and his predecessor Boris Johnson “considered the totality of the impacts” in the decision-making process. Report by Rowlandi. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 You describe how there was obviously,
00:02 throughout the currency of the entire crisis,
00:06 a clash between public health, epidemiological considerations,
00:12 and economic and fiscal issues, both by way
00:17 of the economic considerations, which
00:20 had to be taken into account by the government,
00:22 and also the vast economic and societal damage that
00:25 would be done by decisions such as lockdowns.
00:28 I don't think I ever refer to it as a clash.
00:30 I think I saw my role as Chancellor of the Exchequer
00:34 as making sure that the Prime Minister had
00:38 the best possible advice, information, and analysis
00:41 relating to the economic impact or consequences of some
00:45 of the decisions that he was having to make.
00:48 As a senior cabinet minister, one
00:50 of the consistent arguments or points
00:52 that I made from the beginning throughout
00:55 was just making sure that we collectively,
00:58 and the Prime Minister, considered
01:00 the totality of the impacts of the decisions
01:02 that we were making.
01:04 I didn't ever describe it as a clash just between public health
01:07 and economics.
01:08 I think that's to think about it in far too narrow a way.
01:11 As many people have alluded to, and I did at the time,
01:14 there were a range of impacts, many of them socioeconomic--
01:17 the impact on children's education, on mental health,
01:21 on the issue in the criminal justice system,
01:23 as well as the pure economic impact.
01:25 And it was important that policymakers
01:27 consider the totality of those.