Sunak criticises ‘fear narrative’ besieging Covid lockdowns

London, August 25

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak (42), a finalist in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as British PM, on Thursday, spoke out candidly against the “fear narrative” and partial analyses behind the country’s Covid lockdowns.

My intention to speak out now is not to point a finger of blame and name anyone, but to highlight the importance of learning lessons from the decisions made over the course of 2020 & 2021. —Rishi Sunak, Former chancellor

He revealed what was going on in the corridors of power for the first time in an interview. While he does not argue that lockdown was a mistake, Sunak does reveal his many misgivings, a lack of proper factoring in of the trade-offs involved in completely locking down society and suppression of dissenting views within government. “In every brief, we tried to say let’s stop the ‘fear’ narrative. It was always wrong from the beginning. I constantly said it was wrong,” he said.