Truss and Sunak face Tory hustings after both say Covid lockdown went too far – as it happened

Latest updates: Tory leadership frontrunner reacts to Sunak comments, saying school closures went too far; pair meet Tory members in Norwich

• Sunak says it was a mistake to empower scientists' during Covid pandemic

Lee Cain, who was director of communications in Downing Street during the early phase of the Covid crisis, says Rishi Sunak's comments about the lockdown policy (see 9.22am and 9.47am) are simply wrong".

But Sunak is not saying lockdown should not have happened, as Cain suggests. He is just saying that it was implemented too rigidly, and perhaps for too long, and that more consideration should have been given to the downsides.