British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he does not believe the Eat Out To Help Out scheme was a risk and that the "onus" should have been on those who felt strongly about the policy to raise concerns "when something could have been done about it".
Defending the scheme at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, he said: "Why would I raise it as a risk when I didn't believe that it was? Because it was designed in the context of a safe reopening.
"The onus is surely on the people who now believe that it was a risk to have raised it at the time, when something could have been done about it, if they felt strongly.
"I'm very clear that I don't believe that it was, because hospitality had been deemed to be safe to reopen with a considerable - as I said - hundreds of pages of guidance, changes in practice, and had been recommended by think tanks, and had been done by countries elsewhere."
He said the discount hospitality scheme helped protect workers from the "devastating consequences" of job losses.
The scheme was introduced by Mr Sunak, when he was chancellor in summer 2020, in a bid to support the hard-hit hospitality sector as the UK emerged from coronavirus restrictions imposed during the first lockdown.
The policy has been heavily scrutinised by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, with questions about whether scientists were consulted about the plan and whether it contributed to the spread of infection.
Giving evidence to the inquiry today, Mr Sunak said he still believed Eat Out to Help Out had been the "right thing to do to protect" what he said were "millions" of jobs held by "particularly vulnerable people".
He said: "All the data, all the evidence, all the polling, all the input from those companies suggested that unless we did something, many of those jobs would have been at risk with devastating consequences for those people and their families."
The plan formed part of Mr Sunak's summer economic update on 8 July 2020 and provided 50% off the cost of food and/or non-alcoholic drinks.
Scheme a 'micro policy' - Sunak
The announcement blindsided both key scientific advisers and Mr Sunak's then cabinet colleagues, including former health secretary Matt Hancock, who said the first they knew of it was when it was made public.
Prof Sir Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, is said to have privately referred to the scheme to boost the restaurant industry as "eat out to help out the virus".
Patrick Vallance, who was chief scientific adviser, previously told the inquiry the scheme was "highly likely" to have fuelled deaths.
Questioned by lead counsel Hugo Keith KC about the scheme, Mr Sunak said such concerns were not raised with him despite there being a one-month gap between it being announced and the discount coming into effect.
He said there had been "ample opportunity" for people to raise concerns with him or then-prime minister Boris Johnson during that period.
Mr Sunak said the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was a "micro policy" within the overall reopening plan after the first lockdown, with indoor hospitality "already" open again as part of the Government's May plan to lift restrictions.
The Prime Minister said: "Eat Out to Help Out only operated within that context.
"And indeed there were a significant range of other NPIs (non-pharmaceutical interventions) that were in place, including social distancing, Covid secure guidance, table service, contactless ordering, one-way systems, all of which had been put in place."
Sunak denies dysfunction in government
Earlier, Mr Sunak denied that there was dysfunction in government during the pandemic.
Mr Sunak told the inquiry that Mr Johnson largely followed the advice of medical and scientific experts.
He began his evidence by saying he is "deeply sorry to all those who lost loved ones" during the pandemic.
He told chairwoman Heather Hallett it is "important that we learn the lessons so that we can be better prepared in the future".
Other witnesses have described confusion and dysfunction in government during the pandemic.
However, Mr Sunak said this was not his experience, though he could not speak about the civil service departments like the PM's office or the Cabinet Office.
He said as chancellor he was able to get his points across to Mr Johnson.
He was asked about a magazine interview he gave in which he said the economic and societal effects of lockdowns were not given proper consideration.
Mr Sunak said he was referring to the public communications at the time and he recognised the need for simplicity.
He said there was vigorous debate about the effects of lockdown and recommendations from SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) was largely followed by Mr Johnson.
Mr Sunak said the government changed direction in accordance with changing advice from the scientists.
WhatsApp messages
Mr Sunak told the inquiry that he did not have access to WhatsApp communications from around the time of the pandemic as he had changed his phone "multiple times over the last few years".
Mr Keith said: "Your phone, you said, doesn't retain, and nor do you have access to, text messages at all relating to the period of the crisis.
"In addition, you said although on occasion you use WhatsAapp to communicate around meetings and logistics and so on, you generally were only party to WhatsApp groups that were set up to deal with individual circumstances such as arrangements for calls, meetings and so on and so forth. You don't now have access to any of the WhatsApps that you did send during the time of the crisis, do you?"
Mr Sunak replied: "No, I don't, I've changed my phone multiple times over the past few years and, as that has happened, the messages have not come across.
"As you said, I'm not a prolific user of WhatsApp in the first instance - primarily communication with my private office and obviously anything that was of significance through those conversations or exchanges would have been recorded officially by my civil servants as one would expect."
Additional reporting PA, Reuters
