Former Chancellor George Osborne has defended the austerity measures he oversaw during the Conservative government's years of spending cuts, as he appeared before the Covid inquiry.
Inquiry barrister Kate Blackwell KC asked him: “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?”“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.
Echoing former Prime Minister David Cameron's comments to the inquiry on Monday that the government had only planned for a pandemic caused by flu, not other respiratory illnesses like coronavirus Mr Osborne said: “There was no planning in Britain – or indeed as far as I’m aware in France, Germany, the United States, or anywhere like that.
Prior to the appearance of Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne, the BMA said they must be “taken to task” at the inquiry over austerity-era decisions that “left us so unprepared” for the pandemic.
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