Former head of body set up to coordinate pandemic policy agrees that he was ‘blindsided’ by Rishi Sunak’s plan
The government body set up to coordinate Covid policy had no warning about Rishi Sunak’s “eat out to help out” scheme and felt “blindsided” by the Treasury over it, the inquiry into the pandemic has been told.
Simon Ridley, the senior civil servant who was made head of the Cabinet Office’s Covid taskforce (CTF) in May 2020, told the inquiry the body had not been consulted about Sunak’s controversial plan to incentivise people to eat at restaurants and cafes that summer.
