Londoner's Diary
The Prime Minister was playing to a whole new gallery yesterday when he interviewed X CEO Elon Musk. Under the glare of tech bros across the world, Rishi Sunak spoke fluently about killer robots and AI regulation. But how will he fare under the scrutiny of the Covid-19 inquiry? He will appear later this month at the earliest. But the story Sunak will tell is already a matter of contention.
In his written submission to the inquiry, Dominic Cummings makes lengthy remarks about Sunak’s approach during the pandemic, when he was Chancellor. He heaps praise on Sunak and his top political adviser Liam Booth Smith for taking Covid seriously and taking on Whitehall bureaucracy. But he suggests the PM doesn’t have his story straight and has since tried to alter the record in order to win over lockdown-sceptics on the Tory Right.
He cites Sunak’s cover interview with The Spectator, given last year when he was running for Tory leader against Liz Truss, where Sunak said scientists were given too much power during the pandemic. “Much of what he apparently said, as reported by Fraser Nelson, was rubbish,” Cummings writes in his inquiry submission, “but Sunak’s team said to me that the interview was ‘overwritten’ and implied Sunak had said things he had not actually said.”
Nelson naturally disagrees and suggests the PM himself should adjudicate. “His words spoke for themselves! And will do again when he gives evidence soon,” Nelson told The Londoner. Time for the PM to set the record straight.
