Scientists accuse Rishi Sunak of ‘Trump’ tactics with attack on Covid lockdown experts

Conservative leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak has been accused of behaving like Donald Trump following his attack on the influence of top scientists during the Covid pandemic.

The former chancellor suffered a huge backlash after he said it had been wrong to “empower” scientists during the crisis, claimed lockdown went on too long, and revealed that he fought against the closure of schools.

Mr Sunak also claimed the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) group advising Boris Johnson edited minutes to hide dissenting opinions, saying he “wasn’t allowed” to talk about lockdown’s downsides.

But Prof Graham Medley and other top Sage advisers fired back on Thursday, saying their advice “reflected the scientific consensus” and insisted that it had been up to the politicians to make the decisions.

Prof Devi Sridhar – the public health expert who advised the Scottish government – compared Mr Sunak’s comments to Donald Trump. “With blatant attack on scientists today, watching Sunak v. Truss feels like Trump #1 v. Trump #2,” she tweeted.

The Edinburgh University Medical School professor claimed Mr Sunak had “specifically looked for anyone with scientific credentials recommending to ‘let it rip’” during 2020.

Fellow expert Dr Deepti Gurdasani also rejected Mr Sunak’s claim that scientists were “empowered” during the pandemic – saying many experts were left “screaming helplessly” at the failure to act quickly enough.

The Queen Mary University of London epidemiologist also claimed Mr Sunak had invited a group of more sceptical scientists to Downing Street in September 2020, where they “advised delaying a lockdown” that had been recommended by the Sage scientists.

“An action that very likely cost tens of thousands of lives,” Dr Gurdasani tweeted. “That’s on you. Do you think Sage were ‘empowered’ then? They were dismissed. By you.”

The Times previously reported that Prof Carl Heneghan and Prof Sunetra Gupta advised Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak against a short “circuit-breaker” lockdown in September 2020 – a measure being urged by Sage. The PM decided to delay a second lockdown until November.

In an interview with The Spectator published on Thursday, Mr Sunak said he “wasn’t allowed to talk about the trade-off” of lockdowns during the early phases of the crisis – claiming Sage removed some opinions from its minutes.

“We shouldn’t have empowered the scientists in the way we did,” the leadership hopeful said. “If you empower all these independent people, you’re screwed.”

Mr Sunak said he had called the closure of schools as a “major nightmare” in meetings, saying he was “furious” about the policy. Asked if Britain could have avoided lockdown, Mr Sunak said: ‘I don’t know, but it could have been shorter. Different. Quicker.”

Sage adviser Prof Medley, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said government had the decision-making power. “If one member of cabinet thinks that scientific advice was too ‘empowered’ then it is a criticism of their colleagues rather than the scientists,” he said.

Prof Medley – who was chair of the Spi-M modelling sub-group of Sage – added: “Science has no place in the decision whether to close schools or not, but it does have a role to say what the impact on the epidemic might be.”

Prof Ian Boyd from the University of St Andrews – a member of Sage during the pandemic – added: “Sage did not make decisions, it tried to reflect its uncertainties in its advice and it worked by consensus.”

One scientific adviser – who wished to remain anonymous – said Mr Sunak’s comments were “very misleading” since they suggest that he was alone in thinking about the impact of lockdown on schools and other parts of society.

The adviser said Sage and its sub-groups did assess and discuss impacts of school closures and other measures. “So if the former chancellor was arguing against school closures he would have found plenty of evidence to support his case from the very group of scientists he now appears to be criticising.”

Prof John Edmunds, a leading epidemiologist and member of Sage, said the group’s role was “quite narrow” in assessing the scientific evidence to help inform the decision-makers.

The professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said “there may be some truth” to the idea that the scientific evidence often outweighed the economic data – but suggested it was Mr Sunak’s job to build up the economic impact.

“Where, for instance, was the equivalent of Sage and all its subgroups on the economic side? As the chancellor of the Exchequer Mr Sunak could have set up such a system, but did not,” said Prof Edmunds.

Dr Rachel Clarke, GP and NHS campaigner, accused Mr Sunak of “pandering to his Conservative Party base because he’s desperate”. She told LBC that said his suggestion that lockdowns were bad practice and unnecessary was “absolute nonsense”.

Scotland’s health secretary Humza Yousaf accused Mr Sunak of “desperate Trumpism”. The SNP minister tweeted: “Every government minister should be grateful to our scientists and clinicians, not be attempting to throw them under the bus.”

Dominic Cummings, the former No 10 strategist who left at the end of 2020, said Mr Sunak’s views were “dangerous rubbish” – saying the ex-chancellor was “unfairly” pinning blame on Mr Johnson.

“The Sunak interview is dangerous rubbish, reads like a man whose epically bad campaign has melted his brain and he’s about to quit politics” he tweeted.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Covid, said Mr Sunak’s comments were a “desperate” attempt to “salvage” his campaign as he vies with Liz Truss to be the next PM.

Mr Sunak suggested it had been wrong for Sage scientists to put forward “one unanimous opinion” from the meetings when asked to explain his comments on BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.

“They tried to present a consensus opinion to government, but within that there were people who had different points of view within what is a large and disparate group, right? The idea that there was just one view of these things, I think was wrong. That’s the point I was making.”

Ms Truss took a swipe at Mr Sunak, who was a member of the Covid cabinet committee that oversaw the handling of the crisis.

“I didn’t actually sit on the Covid committee during that time, I was busy striking trade deals around the world,” she said, ahead of hustings in Norwich

“My view is we did go too far, particularly on keeping schools closed. I’ve got two teenage daughters and know how difficult it was for children and parents and I would not have a lockdown again.”

Education minister Will Quince – a supporter of Mr Sunak – suggested that he also believed school closures were a mistake when asked on LBC if he agreed with the Tory leadership contender’s criticism of lockdown policy.

“The government had to act on the information they had at the time,” said Mr Quince. “So things like your closing schools with the information we now have, would we do it again? No, I don’t think we would.”

Mr Sunak supporter Mark Harper MP, the former Tory chief whip, also backed the leadership contender’s claims that “dissenting voices were not allowed” during the pandemic.

Highlighting the impact of “locking” children out of schools, he told LBC: “Government was not being honest about that publicly. It was setting out that there were no choices, that you had to follow ‘The Science’, capitalised T, capitalised S, and dissenting voices were not allowed.”

Health secretary Steve Barclay declined to directly answer whether he agrees with Mr Sunak’s claim that scientists were given too much power.

Speaking to reporters outside Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, he said: “Well of course I was in the Treasury with Rishi and you would expect Treasury ministers in particular to be focused on the wider economic consequences of the lockdown.”