PRESS STATEMENT – MONDAY 11TH DECEMBER – ISSUED AT JOINT UK PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE COVID BEREAVED AND LONG COVID GROUPS
11th December -PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED AT JOINT UK PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE COVID BEREAVED AND LONG COVID GROUPS-
FOLLLOWING THE EVIDENCE OF
PRIME MINISTER RISHI SUNAK AT THE UK COVID INQUIRY
Aamer Anwar- Lead Solicitor on behalf of the Scottish Covid Bereaved
Rishi Sunak in his role as Chancellor was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man, but his primary loyalty was to the markets. By the 13th of March 2020 an estimated 160,000 were infected with the virus, hat was a doubling every three days, yet Mr. Sunak continued to oppose ‘lockdown’, despite the science.
Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson did not require benefit of hindsight, the whole of Europe was watching in real-time a Tsunami of the pandemic sweeping through Italy and the rest of Europe, before hitting our shores.
On the question of WhatsApps, the Covid Bereaved find it inconceivable that any political leader, cannot produce their WhatsApps for the key periods of the pandemic. The Bereaved do not accept today’s excuses offered by the Prime Minister that his WhatsApps are entirely unavailable. Indeed, it would appear that everybody involved in the UK Government, senior Civil servants and Scientists have been able to provide their WhatsApps to this inquiry, apart from Boris Johnson who missed out the key period of the Pandemic and now Rishi Sunak who can provide nothing at all.
The Bereaved will not forget ‘Party Gate’, Rishi Sunak is only the second Prime Minister in history to be hit with a police fine, after he attended a lockdown party at Number 10 to mark then-Prime Minister Mr Johnson’s birthday.
Huge question marks remain over the VIP PPE lanes and the Treasury and Government’s involvement in contracts for PPE. On the 25th March 2020 stood at £100 Million, on the 1st April the contracts had grown to the cost of £1 Billion, in the end it rose astronomically to £14 Billion of contracts. Some of these contracts are the subject of ‘high profile’ criminal investigations.
Rishi Sunak was nicknamed ‘Dr. Death’ by his own scientific advisers, he acted as a cheerleader for ‘Super Saturday’ on 4th July 2020. Millions were encouraged to go out drinking, shopping and partying. Mr. Sunak took credit for introducing the ‘Eat out, to help out’. 78,000 restaurants and pubs took part, 160 million meals were prepared. In the four weeks before it ended on 31 August 2020. Eat out to Help Out, was described as ‘Eat Out, to Help the Virus’, by the Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Witty. Mr. Sunak’s scheme subsidised the spread of the pandemic into autumn.
He was projected as the ‘golden boy’, but he failed to extend the furlough scheme, refused financial levers to the devolved nations or the metro mayors, he failed to increase statutory sick pay, forcing front-line workers, the poor and vulnerable back to work. What the Prime Minister failed in evidence to take credit for, was releasing a new wave of death and disease. Rishi Sunak’s one-man mission to ‘torpedo’ lockdown to gain a ‘competitive advantage’, resulted in a false economy of sacrificing tens of thousands of lives to save the economy. The Covid Bereaved did not accept his empty words of sorrow and it is of note the Prime Minister has failed to utter one word of apology.
