THEY DIE..THAT'S OK

RISHI Sunak allegedly said No10 should let Covid deaths soar rather than impose more curbs.

Former UK chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance made the bombshell claim in a diary entry read out at the Covid Inquiry yesterday.

Of talks on a second lockdown in 2020, he wrote that Boris Johnson wants to "let it rip" and added: "DC [Dominic Cummings] says 'Rishi thinks just let people die and that's OK".

Sir Patrick also said it was "highly likely then-chancellor Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out drove up deaths.

And he described ex-PM Johnson as weak, "bamboozled" by the science and dithering over bringing in restrictions that could have saved more lives. The evidence sparked fury among families who lost loved ones in the pandemic. They branded the situation "an appalling disaster that is a far bigger scandal than Partygate".

Sir Patrick kept a nightly diary during Covid, which exposed the chaos in No10 as a worried country looked to its leaders for guidance and advice.

One entry read out yesterday from October 25, 2020, regarding a second lockdown said: "PM meeting, begins to argue for letting it all rip. Saying yes there will be more casualties but so be it, they have had a good innings'.

"DC [Dominic Cummings] says 'Rishi thinks just let people die and that's OK." Sir Patrick noted: "This all feels like a complete lack of leadership.

Speaking of Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out scheme, the medic said scientists weren't told about the plan before it was announced in August 2020.

Sir Patrick added: "It would have been very obvious to anyone that this would inevitably cause and increase in transmission risk, and I think that would have been obvious to ministers.

Pressed on whether the policy led to an increase in deaths, he said it was "highly likely".