The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, conveyed this Monday his “deep regret” to those who lost family members in the coronavirus pandemic and to those who “suffered as a result of the actions taken” throughout the crisis. The conservative president took advantage of the first minutes of his sworn testimony before the commission that studies the management of Covid-19 to join the general feeling of pity expressed by his predecessor in the leadership of the GovernmentBoris Johnson, and other ministers who have already testified in the oral sessions of this independent process.
The apology was insufficient for the group of victims protesting in front of the commission’s headquarters, in the west of London. “They do not accept his empty words of regret and point out that the prime minister has not issued a single word of apology,” denounced Aamer Anwar, legal representative of the group. Afflicted by Covid.
Altar avoided criticizing the leadership of Johnson during the pandemic, which has been described as “chaotic” and “constructively inefficient” by scientific and political advisers to the former prime minister. On the other hand, the now conservative president has approved the government style of his predecessor and has asserted that he acted in accordance with the recommendations of the panel of scientists. The shifts in strategy responded, according to Sunak, to revisions in expert judgment as the infection spread.
He has also reiterated that initiatives were communicated and discussed at all times with Johnson, with whom he shared a home and garden in Downing Street. “I always had the opportunity to provide ideas and advice to the prime minister,” she said. The work conversations were held in official and private contexts, in the face of an unprecedented health emergency. “I probably saw the prime minister more than I saw my wife in that time,” she added, before noting that it is “normal that not every conversation between two ministers is recorded.”
Sunak defended his position in the different phases of the pandemic, including the controversial promotion of the restaurant sector after the suspension of the first national lockdown, in the summer of 2020. There is no firm evidence to blame the now discredited policy of Eat out, to help with the eruption of the second wave of infections and deaths in the United Kingdom, but senior officials and medical advisers dubbed the then Treasury minister as the doctor of death that “helps the virus” by subsidizing lunches and dinners in restaurants and bars.