Paul Waugh in the Indy has a good piece pondering why Sunak is going to such lengths to avoid scrutiny over what he was doing during lock-down. The mere fact that this is all going to court could suggests that there is something that he doesn’t want to be made public.
This is from Waugh’s piece:
What ought to worry the Prime Minister was the way his own reputation was openly mocked by the Question Time crowd, with many suggesting his trademark promise of “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” was a sham…So, exactly why is Sunak so determined to take the political risk of looking like he wants to nobble an inquiry his own Government set up in the first place? To paraphrase Hague (his predecessor in his Yorkshire constituency and one of his biggest fans), if he’s got nothing to hide, he’s got nothing to fear. Or has he?..Of course, some of this may simply stem from Sunak’s own inherent Establishment-style conservatism about what the public has a right to know, combined with a genuine belief that good government functions better when civil servants and ministers can frankly discuss policy options in confidence…But there’s also a suspicion that he’s worried about his own personal messages about Boris Johnson, other ministers, aides and medical and scientific experts.
Maybe things will become clearer in the Sunday papers which we should see tonight.
What happened during those months three years ago will likely be remembered by people for years and the hint that the political leaders who imposed the regime were not following it themselves could be very damaging. If you look at Johnson’s ratings as PM you will see a marked drop when the first suggestions of his lockdown breaches became known.
Sunak is already leading a party with double digit polling deficits – this could get even worse.
