Rishi Sunak was ‘not pleased’ at early prospect of London lockdown

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Rishi Sunak was not “terribly pleased” with the prospect of imposing a lockdown in London during the early stages of the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance has told the Covid-19 Inquiry. Sir Patrick said emerging evidence of the scale of infections in London meant the capital “needed more” restrictions than other parts of the country. “And certainly, I don’t think the chancellor looked terribly pleased at that moment.” When asked why Mr Sunak was not pleased, Sir Patrick said: “Well, quite rightly, he’s concerned about the economy and London is very much the engine of the economy.” Sir Patrick also told the inquiry he left the permanent secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care “incandescent with rage” for the way he suggested more stringent measures were needed to curb the spread of Covid-19 in mid-March 2020. “I got message back that Chris Wormald was incandescent with rage, as well as the cabinet secretary, about the fact that I’d said this during the meeting on the Sunday,” Sir Patrick said.