Sunak: There were no “tools” to mitigate the impact of the COVID economic recession
Rishi Sunak, the former progressive Prime Minister, explained that there were no “specific tools” to address the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was in office during the crisis, told an inquiry committee that there was “no playbook” to organize the response and the government’s handling of the halt in economic activity due to the imposition of a lockdown.
“We were dealing with a phenomenon that no one had dealt with before,” Sunak framed the situation.
Sunak added that the loss of businesses as a result of instructing people to stay home was “unavoidable,” but he noted that the government “succeeded in preventing mass unemployment.”
The former Prime Minister was giving evidence to the public inquiry committee on the pandemic last Monday, answering questions related to the policies he outlined to support workers’ wages and ensure the continuity of businesses.
He pointed out that the spread of the crisis saw “a massive level of uncertainty,” as politicians and experts were still unsure about the extent and duration of the virus’s spread and how the population would respond to any measures imposed by the government.
“There were no tools, there was no playbook that you could just take off the shelf and say: this is how you differentiate between dealing with pandemics and the way that you can, to some extent, deal with other economic or financial shocks,” Sunak stated.
Over the past three weeks, the committee has been inquiring into the economic response to the pandemic, hearing testimonies from former ministers, Treasury officials, and central bankers.
Sunak’s appearance yesterday was his “second instance of standing,” after previously giving evidence in December 2023 when he was still Prime Minister.
He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in Boris Johnson’s government on February 13, and was about to present a budget before the pandemic hit the UK and the country was placed under lockdown a month later.
Sunak told the committee that his priority was to prevent mass unemployment, and he stressed that “it was essential for the government to be quick in its response.”
He said there was an “acknowledgement” within the Treasury that they would not be able to “get absolutely everything perfect from the beginning.”
“We couldn’t allow perfection to be the enemy of the good,” Sunak framed it. “We had to get things out quickly.”
Sunak indicated that he “didn’t think every individual job could be saved,” but he noted that “as it turned out, the impact on the standard of living, especially for the most vulnerable citizens in society… was stronger than I had anticipated when we entered this phase and I am very proud of that.”
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, known as “Furlough,” was announced by Sunak in March 2020.
In his previous appearance before the committee, Sunak defended his “Eat Out to Help Out” policy, which was one of the government’s measures to support struggling businesses during the pandemic.
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