Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Did Eat Out to Help Out rekindle Covid? A look at the data

Credit: HM Treasury

John Edmunds was, with Neil Ferguson, one of the main advocates of lockdown but has been remarkably silent about how this theory held up against the results. But he does, still, pop up to attack those who were sceptical of his old advice. Chief amongst them was Rishi Sunak, his target today.

The Observer discloses that ‘a leading scientist’ has attacked Sunak for the work he did trying to repair the damage of lockdown on commercial activity with the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. That scientist was, of course, Edmunds, back to his old tricks using his position on Sage (which has still not been disbanded) to attack ministers who disagreed with him.

Speaking to the Observer, Prof John Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was a member of the Sage committee of advisers to ministers and who has submitted written evidence to the inquiry, said the controversial Eat Out to Help Out scheme – which gave people discounts for eating in restaurants and pubs – was never discussed with scientists. If we had [been consulted], I would have been clear what I thought about it,” said Edmunds. “As far as I am concerned, it was a spectacularly stupid idea and an obscene way to spend public money… We were asked questions and gave scientific answers but we didn’t know what strategy was being discussed by the government. It was written by them and we saw it the same day that the press saw it. They never said: ‘Here’s the strategy, what do you think of it?

Was it so bad that Edmunds was not consulted? And is it so obvious that the £840m scheme was bad? It cut the number of furloughed workers in the sector by 38 per cent, pushing economic activity up 70 per cent (inflation was also down).

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