Covid inquiry: George Osborne ‘completely rejects’ claims austerity weakened health and social care capacity – UK politics live

Evidence submitted by former chancellor claims austerity had positive' effect on UK's ability to withstand Covid pandemic

George Osborne, chancellor from 2010 until 2016, is giving evidence to the Covid inquiry now.

He starts by saying he wants to express his heartfelt sympathy to all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic. He says he hopes the inquiry gets to the heart of what happened.

My great regret about not having focused on pandemic flu, because I was told it was being well looked after, is not actually about pandemic flu.

But that it might have occurred to me if I had focused on that, that despite all the scientists had concluded, and no doubt they were right, that there was a very tiny probability by comparison with the probability of pandemic flu, of some other catastrophic pathogen ...

Actually it is absolutely not an excuse for a minister, alas, because you can always ask the following question, you don't have to accept the advice.

That is actually what I should've done and it's a matter of lasting regret that I didn't.