By Ben Kerrigan-
Western governments copied lockdowns from China and would not have considered such extreme measures if Beijing had not done it first, George Osborne suggested as he gave evidence at the Covid inquiry.
The former chancellor suggested that countries across the world may not have locked down if the authoritarian regime in China had not done so first.
Mr Osborne, (pictured)who served as chancellor in David Cameron’s government between 2010 and 2016, said that during his time in office there was no planning for lockdown and launched a robust defence of austerity.
Mr Osborne clearly said that the Treasury did not plan for an extended lockdown, but questioned whether such a plan would have led to a better furlough scheme anyway.
“There was no assumption that you would mandate that the population to stay at home for months and months on end so there was no planning for a lockdown,” he said.
He refused to attribute blame for the failure for adequate preparation, saying that “I don’t think it’s particularly fair to apportion blame” when scientists were not “elevating” threat of such a virus spreading rapidly”.
But he accepted that “with hindsight” the Treasury should have developed a blueprint for such a health emergency.
However, he rejected claims his austerity programme while he was chancellor depleted the NHS, as he suggested his cuts better prepared Britain to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The former Conservative MP, who was editor of the Evening Standard, until 2021, said he “completely” disputed the allegations at the official UK Covid-19 Inquiry from medics and unions that his cuts left health and social care in a “parlous state”.
The British Medical Association argued the cuts put the nation “severely on the back foot”, as the first phase of the UK Covid-19, a claim Osborne said he ‘completely rejects’ .
In response to a question put to him for a pandemic by Kate Blackwell KC, counsel for the Inquiry, he said: “Would we all have gone into lockdown if China had not locked down in January and February?”
“I think the Chinese lockdown is what gives the rest of the world the idea,” he told the inquiry in his evidence.
“And it’s the overwhelming of the hospital system in northern Italy that then leads all Western governments to reach basically the same conclusion, which is we’ve got to do what the Chinese have done in order to try and preserve our capacity and our emergency wards.”
He said he wondered whether, if the government had done a “tabletop exercise” in 2011 or 2012 on the matter, the same conclusion to lockdown would have been reached.
Ms Blackwell added: “We’ll never know because it was never done.”
Meanwhile, the inquiry heard from Sir Oliver Letwin that the churn of civil servants tasked with preparing for emergencies is a “disaster for this country”.
Sir Oliver, who was the minister in charge of resilience in government from 2011 to 2016, said: “I’m pretty certain that the entire structure of the civil service means that you can’t really make progress in a career without going through endless different jobs one after another, which I regard as a disaster for the country, particularly disastrous in the case of things that have very long lead times and where learning from experience is critical.”
Mr Osborne also rejected claims his austerity programme while he was chancellor depleted the NHS, as he suggested his cuts better prepared Britain to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The former Conservative MP “completely” disputed the allegations at the official UK Covid-19 Inquiry from medics and unions that his cuts left health and social care in a “parlous state”.
Mr Osborne argued on Tuesday that the UK may not have had the financial scope to spend vast amounts to support the public through the crisis without austerity.
However, he conceded that his Treasury should have planned economic measures such as the furlough scheme needed in the pandemic.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has told the inquiry that the “political choice” of austerity under prime minister David Cameron left the UK “hugely exposed to the pandemic”.
The British Medical Association has argued the cuts put the nation “severely on the back foot”, as the first phase of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry examines whether proper preparations were made.
Mr Osborne argued that it was key to ensure that the economy after the “massive economic shock” of the 2008 financial crisis was able to “flex in a crisis”.
Kate Blackwell KC asked: “Do you agree, by the time Covid-19 hit, the consequences of austerity were a depleted health and social care capacity and rising inequality in the UK?”
Mr Osborne replied: “Most certainly not, I completely reject that.
“I would say if we had not done that Britain would have been more exposed, not just to future things like the coronavirus pandemic, but indeed to the fiscal crisis which very rapidly followed in countries across Europe …”
Mr Osborne said he needed to repair the “seriously impaired public finances”.
“If we had not had a clear plan to put the public finances on a sustainable path then Britain might have experienced a fiscal crisis, we would not have had the fiscal space to deal with the coronavirus pandemic when it hit,” he said.
In his written evidence, Mr Osborne argues that his action “had a material and positive effect on the UK’s ability to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic”.