An inquiry into the UK government’s response to the coronavirus revealed that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reportedly said the government should “just let people die” in the Covid-19 pandemic instead of deciding on a second national lockdown. Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser on the covid-19 pandemic, wrote a note in his diary on 25 October 2020 about a meeting attended by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Sunak, the finance minister in Johnson’s government. Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s top adviser during the pandemic, relayed to Vallance what he allegedly heard at the meeting.
Vallance wrote in his diary about how Cummings told him about the alleged comments made by Sunak in the meeting. Sunak’s spokesman said that the British prime minister will present his position when he submits evidence to the inquiry “instead of answering each (part) individually”. Britain is investigating the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 people. The investigation will last until the summer of 2026.