Tory leadership: Rishi Sunak criticises government Covid response

Rishi Sunak has criticised the government's response to Covid - suggesting independent scientific advisers were given too much authority.

Mr Sunak - chancellor in the pandemic - told the Spectator magazine there had not been enough discussion about the negative side-effects of lockdowns.

He said he had felt "emotional" when he argued to keep schools in England open.

Mr Sunak said it had been "wrong" to scare people with campaign posters showing Covid patients on ventilators.

The winner of the contest - Mr Sunak or Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - will replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and as prime minister.

During the campaign both candidates have sought to highlight areas where they disagreed with the government in which they served, with Ms Truss saying she was opposed to the rise to National Insurance.

Mr Sunak and Ms Truss are due to take part in a hustings for Conservative Party members in Norwich on Thursday evening.

As chancellor from February 2020 to July 2022, Mr Sunak played a key role in the government's response to coronavirus, including establishing the furlough scheme.

Speaking to the Spectator, Mr Sunak insisted he did not want to blame individuals but said he believes a series of mistakes were made by ministers during the pandemic.

He said ministers were not given enough information to scrutinise analysis produced by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) - a group of independent experts advising the government.

"We shouldn't have empowered the scientists in the way we did," he is quoted as saying.

Mr Sunak says ministers should have talked more about what he described as the "trade-offs" of lockdowns, such as NHS backlogs and the impact of children's education.

"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.

"Those meetings were literally me around that table, just fighting. It was incredibly uncomfortable every single time.

"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 Department of Health has been contacted for a response to Mr Sunak's comments.

It comes after a report from MPs last year said the UK should have acted sooner to stop Covid spreading early in the pandemic.