Watch: Covid Inquiry - George Osborne's evidence on how austerity affected pandemic response

George Osborne has suggested that Western countries simply copied China in enforcing lockdown, and questioned if the same decision would have been made had the UK government had carried out its own tabletop exercise. The former chancellor questioned if we would “all have gone into lockdown if China had not locked down in January and February”. “I think the Chinese lockdown is what gives the rest of the world the idea,” he told the inquiry in his evidence. “And it’s the overwhelming of the hospital system in northern Italy. That then leads all Western governments to reach basically the same conclusion which is we’ve got to do what the Chinese have done in order to try and preserve our capacity and our emergency wards.” He says he wondered if they had done a table top exercise whether they’d have come to the conclusion the population could be put under lockdown. Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/19/covid-inquiry-david-cameron-austerity-nhs-covid-response/ Subscribe to The Telegraph with our special offer: just £1 for 3 months. Start your free trial now: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/customer/subscribe/digitalsub/3for1/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_pvid_conversion-subscription_editorial-iniative_03-22_EGW-13_organic_youtube Get the latest headlines: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture. #covidinquiry # GeorgeOsborne #nhs