Sunak defends policy

THE Eat Out to Help Out discount hospitality scheme helped to protect workers from the “devastating consequences” of job losses, Rishi Sunak told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry yesterday.

The scheme was introduced by the Prime Minister, when he was Chancellor during the coronavirus pandemic, in summer 2020, in a bid to support the hard-hit hospitality sector as the UK emerged from 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 official inquiry yesterday, 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”.