Boris Johnson joked about the Treasury being “the pro-death squad” during the pandemic because it wanted to ease lockdown restrictions quickly, Sir Patrick Vallance’s diaries have revealed.
The former chief scientific adviser recorded a meeting in which the former PM said he wanted to lift all Covid restrictions by September 2020.
In an from Sir Patrick’s diary, shown to the Covid inquiry, he said Mr Johnson “ended up by saying the team must bring in the pro-death squad from HMT (Her Majesty’s Treasury)”.
Asked about the entry, Stuart Glassborow, the deputy principal private secretary to Boris Johnson during the pandemic, said he “did not recall” Mr Johnson using that phrase.
He was also asked about Sir Patrick’s belief that Mr Johnson was “obsessed” with the idea of elderly people “accepting their fate” during the pandemic in order to “let young people get on with their lives”.
Mr Glassborow said he “did not recall” Mr Johnson using that phrase.
The revelation came as the senior No10 official confirmed the government did not take advice from scientists about how the Eat Out to Help Out could impact the spread of the virus before it was rolled out.
Mr Glassborow told the inquiry there was no “direct” analysis from the government’s top scientists on how the scheme, launched in summer 2020 to boost the hospitality industry, could impact infection rates.
He also told the Covid probe on Monday that neither Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, Sir Patrick or Sage were consulted over the scheme.
Asked whether Downing Street was aware there had not been a scientific analysis of the policy, Mr Glassborow said: “I, and others in Number 10, did become aware that there hadn’t been direct CMO, CSA, Sage analysis on this policy. So we did come to know that.”
Earlier, the former top economic adviser at the Treasury was pressed on if she knew whether the potential for Eat Out to Help Out leading to increasing infections was considered before it was launched.
Clare Lombardelli said: “I don’t know. The policy was conceived in the context that it was safe to lift restrictions and activity could return.”
Elsewhere on Monday, the Covid inquiry was told how the Treasury urged Mr Sunak in autumn 2020 to “push back” on calls for a so-called circuit-breaker lockdown.
It was shown a briefing note prepared for the then chancellor which said: “We suggest you push back strongly on the circuit breaker proposal.
“The economic impact would be severe, making firm failures and redundancies far likelier.”
And, painting the Treasury as having been opposed to further Covid restrictions, the inquiry was shown a second briefing note from that September, which said: “We are reaching the limits of what we can do economically, with further measures likely to be catastrophic.”
Ms Lombardelli, who is now the chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said it was the Treasury’s job to “provide evidence and analysis on the economic impact” of policies, which could then be weighed by decision-makers against issues such as health.
Another major revelation from the inquiry was Ms Lombardelli’s confirmation that Treasury officials did not produce an estimated cost of lockdown.
She blamed the lack of a “reasonable counterfactual” of what would have happened had the government not chosen to lockdown.
