UK's Sunak rejects idea that eat-out scheme spread virus

London

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak rejected the idea that his flagship programme to give people discounts on going to restaurants helped spread the coronavirus over the summer.

"I would be, I guess, cautious about jumping to simplistic conclusions," he said on Sky News on Tuesday, defending a programme that was central to the Treasury's efforts to protect hospitality jobs. It's incredibly difficult to pinpoint at such a granular level exactly the cause of transmission."

On Sunday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme that the initiative - which paid people up to £10 (S$17.60) per person for a meal in a restaurant in a bid to boost the hospitality sector - might have helped the transmission of the disease.

"Insofar as that scheme may have helped to spread the virus, obviously we need to counteract that and we need to counteract that with the discipline and the measures that we're proposing," Mr Johnson said.

But Mr Sunak did not see a cause-and-effect relationship. He said that incidence of the virus has been lower in areas like south-west England, where there was significant take-up of the offer.

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The government is now trying to suppress a resurgence of the virus as the country heads into the winter months, including by imposing new restrictions on hospitality.

Mr Sunak told BBC TV on Monday that a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants "could" help slow transmission. BLOOMBERG