Sunak attacks Covid-19 lockdown response

LONDON: Former finance minister Rishi Sunak, one of two candidates vying to be Britain's next prime minister, said it was a mistake to have "empowered" scientists during the coronavirus pandemic, and that the downsides of lockdowns were suppressed.

The ruling Conservative Party is choosing a new leader after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to quit when dozens of ministers resigned in protest at a series of scandals and missteps.

Party members are voting to select either Sunak or Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Sunak said the government was "wrong to scare people" about coronavirus. He said he was banned from discussing the "trade-offs" of imposing coronavirus-related restrictions, such as the impact on missed doctor's appointments and lengthening health waiting lists in the state-run National Health Service.

"The script was not to ever acknowledge them," he told the Spectator magazine. "The script was: 'Oh, there's no trade-off, because doing this for our health is good for the economy'." He said: "We shouldn't have empowered the scientists in the way we did."