{"id":317050,"date":"2025-12-15T10:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T10:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/317050\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T10:54:10","slug":"covid-inquiry-rishi-sunak-facing-questions-watch-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/317050\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid inquiry: Rishi Sunak facing questions &#8211; watch live"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sunak faces inquiry for a second timepublished at 10:16 GMT<\/p>\n<p>10:16 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-kkut0v-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2091d3c9-5f5f-46b1-8fad-7ab1a1b4ff9f.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Theo Leggett<br \/>Business correspondent, reporting from the inquiry<\/p>\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rishi Sunak with an Eat out to Help out sticker\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/f358eeec-77b8-45ff-a890-d0e994d79f89.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"4000\" height=\"2250\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, PA Media<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For the past three weeks the Covid inquiry has been delving into the economic response to the pandemic. We\u2019ve heard from former ministers, treasury officials and central bankers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Today, Rishi Sunak will take the stand for the second time. When he first appeared, in December 2023, he was still prime minister. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He faced a tough interrogation over his time as chancellor and his role in Boris Johnson&#8217;s government. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was asked about missing WhatsApp messages, his attitude towards his former boss and whether it had been fair for people in 10 Downing Street to describe the Treasury at the time as a &#8220;pro-death squad&#8221; after it was accused of being &#8220;opposed to public health interventions&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He rejected this characterisation, and he also defended his Eat Out to Help Out policy, which he claimed helped protect millions of jobs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nowadays, he\u2019s a backbench MP, and it remains to be seen whether the questioning this time will be as tough. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The inquiry has heard a fair amount of praise for interventions made on his watch, such as the furlough scheme and the parallel scheme to help the self-employed, as well as the various loan schemes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But there have also been criticisms \u2013 that too many people fell through the cracks, and that some businesses struggled to get the support they needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunak faces inquiry for a second timepublished at 10:16 GMT 10:16 GMT Theo LeggettBusiness correspondent, reporting from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-317050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}