Rishi Sunak says he returned from a government trip last December to prevent the country from entering a new COVID lockdown.
The former chancellor and Tory leadership candidate told LBC that the UK was “hours away from a press conference” announcing the measures due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
But he said he “fought hard against the system” to prevent the lockdown from being introduced.
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As 2021 drew to a close, Omicron became the dominant variant in the country and cases rose rapidly, with Boris Johnson advising people to be “cautious” around the Christmas build-up and health officials urging the public to limit their contacts.
Rumors abounded that the government would introduce further restrictions as businesses, particularly in the hospitality sector, called for more support as people canceled events.
But on December 16, Johnson said there was no order for people to cancel meetings and ruled out any lockdowns “by stealth”.
On the same day, the Treasury confirmed that Mr. Sunak would reportedly cut a trip short by a day to return from the US to hold talks with business leaders about the variant’s impact.
Questions about his whereabouts followed as cases mounted, with Labor telling him to “get out of Hollywood and get back to reality”.
During an interview with Andrew Marr, Sunak said, “What I did in December was fly back from a government trip I was on overseas.
“And I came back to this country to stop us from sleepwalking into a national lockdown, because we were hours away from a press conference that was going to lock this country down again because of Omicron.”
He added: “I came back and fought very hard against the system because I believed that this would be wrong for this country, with all the damage it would have done to businesses, to children’s education, to people’s lives.” .
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0:47 Sunak says there will be no more support
Sunak made the comments a day after reaching the final two of the Conservative leadership contest, facing Liz Truss on the ballot.
The foreign secretary is currently leading the race, according to a poll of Tory Party members, who will decide their next leader and incoming prime minister over the next six weeks.
Sunak said he was happy to have “won” the argument last year and said it should give voters confidence that he was “prepared to push hard and fight for the things I believe in, even when that’s hard.”