What Rishi Sunak Should Have Apologised For

As he left Downing Street as Prime Minister for the last time, Rishi Sunak apologised to the nation for the record of his Conservative Government. Here, Mark Ellse imagines what else he should have apologised for…

To the country I would like to say first and foremost I am sorry.

I have given this job my all but you have sent a clear signal that the Government of the U.K. must change, and yours is the judgement that matters.

I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss.

But there is one particular way in which I failed you as a member of the Government. Now that I am leaving political leadership, I should like to say sorry and, so far as I am able, speak honestly about my errors.

During the Covid years, the Government of which I was a part failed you. We lacked the humility to acknowledge that there are some difficult things in life over which no human has control. Instead we made rash promises to defeat an airborne virus like flu, something we simply put up with every winter as we now indeed do with Covid.

Whether from faith or stoicism, we all know we have the ability to face very difficult human situations with courage rather than unbridled fear. Yet instead of demonstrating such courage, the Government deliberately encouraged fear, for reasons that we can now clearly see were unjustified.

The Government was preoccupied with the need to be seen to be doing something, preoccupied with the vain promise of “defeating covid” instead of acting with wisdom. Sufficient of us were aware of the economic chaos we were causing. Despite that, we silenced and pilloried those who predicted that shutting down much of our health service and the economy would damage us profoundly. We failed to balance any good that lockdowns might be doing with the harm we knew they would do. To my shame, I even allowed myself to be silenced on this matter by Hugo Keith KC when giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry.

There is now a general scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels is contributing to natural climate change, raising global temperatures and resulting in potentially serious consequences for human life on this planet. So, as with Covid, there are predictions of catastrophe. The temptation is for governments to spread fear instead of quiet wisdom, and to act precipitously whether or not it does more harm than good. We are inclined to act even when we know, if we are being honest, that our efforts will have little benefit. As with Covid we are in danger of abandoning wisdom and silencing those who challenge the consensus. We are reluctant even to allow the discussion of whether the harms we would do by depriving so many in the world of affordable energy would be greater than any benefits of abolishing fossil fuels.

I say these things now because I want to leave office having been completely open and honest with you and I want to help a future Government avoid making the same mistakes over Net Zero that I made over Covid.