In an extraordinary – and impeccably timed, from the point view of his Tory leadership campaign – interview with the Spectator, Rishi Sunak has felt compelled to out himself as the scrappy underdog of the cabinet’s Covid strategy battles. No one but him, he claims, even considered the potential harms of lockdown, such as missed doctors appointments, the NHS backlog or children not attending school. “That was never part of it … those meetings were literally me around that table, just fighting. It was incredibly uncomfortable every single time,” he said.
He also says he objected to what he called the “fear narrative”, the messaging from the government about the dangers of the virus. Releasing posters of people on ventilators was the worst, he said.
