Rishi Sunak thought the Government should “let people die” of Covid during the pandemic, according to Dominic Cummings.
In a bombshell extract from Sir Patrick Vallance’s diary given to the Covid Inquiry, the chief scientific adviser quoted Mr Cummings as saying: “Rishi [Sunak] thinks just let people die and that's okay".
It came as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson debated whether to impose a second national lockdown with ministers and advisers on October 25, 2020.
Mr Johnson was said to have been "getting very frustrated" and "throwing papers down" during the meeting, claiming that "most people who die have reached their time anyway".
Sir Patrick wrote: "This all feels like a complete lack of leadership."
Meanwhile, Sir Patrick told the inquiry that former health secretary Matt Hancock had a habit of saying things that were not true during the pandemic.
He said: “I think he had a habit of saying things which he didn’t have a basis for and he would say them too enthusiastically too early, without the evidence to back them up, and then have to backtrack from them days later.
“I don’t know to what extent that was sort of over-enthusiasm versus deliberate – I think a lot of it was over-enthusiasm.
“He definitely said things which surprised me because I knew that the evidence base wasn’t there.”
