Reflecting on chaos of early pandemic, former chancellor said it was ‘acutely stressful’ to see rising interest bill on government bonds

Rishi Sunak was concerned about the UK’s ability to fund itself in March 2020 after the government announced rescue measures costing tens of billions of pounds to prevent mass redundancies, the Covid-19 pandemic inquiry has heard.

The former prime minister, who was chancellor when the first UK lockdown was announced, said he feared foreign investors had become more concerned about Britain’s ability to pay its way than other countries in a similar situation.

Former chancellor and PM faces questions on the economic response to the pandemic

Sunak said speed was “paramount” as “one thing that was crystal clear that this was happening very quickly” and was to have an “extraordinary impact” on millions of people across the country.

A damning official report on the handling of the pandemic found the UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”. It said the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives.

As it turned out, that was really the one of the easier things I had to do, given what then unfolded over the next few days, weeks, months, and at that moment things were moving very quickly. So even during the budget preparations, it was clear that what was happening with the pandemic was escalating.