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Boris Johnson referred to Treasury as ‘pro-death squad’, inquiry hears

06 Nov 2023 4 minute read
Boris Johnson. Photo Jeff J Mitchell PR Images

Boris Johnson referred to the Treasury as the “pro-death squad” during the pandemic, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has heard.

The former prime minister reportedly used the phrase at a meeting in January 2021 when he wanted the ministry to back him in arguing for a path to eased restrictions.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday, Mr Johnson’s pandemic-era deputy principal private secretary, Stuart Glassborow, said he did not recall hearing the term.

Reading from former chief scientific adviser to the Government Sir Patrick Vallance’s diary, where the phrase was noted, Mr Keating went on: “There is an entry… at meeting on 25 January 2021 the PM is recorded saying he wants Tier 3 March 1, Tier 2 April 1, Tier 1 May 1 and nothing by September.

“And he ends it by saying the team must bring in the pro-death squad from HMT”.

“I think (this) refers to a meeting from a couple of years ago. I don’t recall that specific phrase,” Mr Glassborow said.

“I see that this is from Patrick’s notebook. I wouldn’t dispute what he’s recorded, but I don’t recall the phrase at all.”

Earlier, the inquiry heard from the Government’s former chief economic adviser, who said the Treasury had “no estimated cost” of a lockdown going into the pandemic.

“I wouldn’t say there was no meaningful modelling, there was a lot of analysis and modelling that happened. What I would say is there was no estimated cost of a lockdown, if you like,” Claire Lombardelli said.

“There was no way to basically say a lockdown will cost you X, or indeed a lockdown of this form will cost you X but of a different form will cost you Y.”

Tactical

Ms Lombardelli denied the Treasury had been “tactical” or selective in the way it shared its analysis during the pandemic, saying its focus was on providing information to ministers in a “pressurised time”.

But she acknowledged that data could “potentially” have been shared more widely to improve the quality of modelling.

In an email chain shown to the inquiry, Dame Angela McLean, who was the deputy chief scientific adviser at the time, expressed concerns over the Treasury’s use of simple modelling.

The email read: “I have emailed Chris (Whitty) and Patrick (Vallance) saying HMT (Her Majesty’s Treasury) changed the model after I QA’d (quality assured) it and I don’t know how.

“Anything HMT says about infectious disease modelling therefore has no endorsement from me – they are on their own.

“Given their inability to spot egregious errors in other things they were sent I do not have confidence in their ability to hack a simple, sensible model.”

Ms Lombardelli, who advised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor, was also asked about the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, through which discounts were offered to encourage people to get back out to restaurants in summer 2020.

The former Government adviser, now chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said she did not know whether any scientist had been consulted about the policy before it was implemented.

“I was involved in the sort of economic evidence that fed into this identification of the challenge… I don’t know the details of the clearance process,” she said.

Asked whether the risk of potentially increasing infections was considered in the rollout, Ms Lombardelli replied: “I don’t know. The policy was conceived in the context that it was safe to lift restrictions and activity could return.”

However, Mr Glassborow said staff inside No 10 were aware there was no scientific advice on the scheme’s effect on the virus before it was implemented.

Giving evidence after Ms Lombardelli, Mr Glassborow, a career civil servant, said he and others in Downing Steet knew “there hadn’t been direct CMO, CSA, Sage analysis on this policy.”

The inquiry will later hear from Ben Warner, a former No 10 special adviser.


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Jeff
Jeff
10 months ago

Says the bloke that was prepared to fight to the last drop of everyones blood to save his career, no covid rules followed in No10, partied when people were dying, didn’t lock down early and had a curious meeting with Lebedev just before the lockdowns. But then we had Hancock wanting to say who lived and who died, Sunak was Dr Death (eat out to help out killed more people). If this was a company it would be up for corporate manslaughter. Conservatives eh. They were supporting him even when it looked like he was out the door. How is… Read more »

hdavies15
hdavies15
10 months ago
Reply to  Jeff

The Government of the time during the Covid crisis is culpable on so many issues. Indeed it is hard to find any redeeming aspects in their disastrous track record. That “Eat Out to spread a bug” campaign was effective only because the public at large were also very lax. They turned into childish morons ignoring simple distancing rules and engaging in close quarters nonsense which would inevitably spray entire rooms with contagion. In that respect maybe the public, or a large slice of it, got the government it deserved.

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