Sunak Versus Johnson: How U.K. Leaders Are at Odds Over Covid

(Bloomberg) -- Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson are saying different things on how to fight coronavirus in a split that exposes the dilemma at the top of the U.K. government over how to balance saving lives with saving the economy.

Both the prime minister and the chancellor have spent the past three days emphasizing their mutual regard and close personal relationship -- amid rumors that a rift has worsened.

Yet their public comments tell a different story. Here the tensions in the U.K.’s most powerful double act are revealed in their own words:

Eat Out to Help Out

• Johnson: “In so far as that scheme may have helped to spread the virus obviously we need to counteract that,” Johnson told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday. “We need to counteract that with the discipline and the measures that we’re proposing.”

• Sunak: “I would be, I guess, cautious about jumping to simplistic conclusions,” Sunak said on Sky News on Tuesday, defending the dining out subsidies plan 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.”

10 p.m. Curfew

• Johnson: “The scientific evidence is of course that the virus is transmitted by person to person contact and is transmitted – yes, it’s transmitted in homes, it’s transmitted between people, but it’s also transmitted in what they call hospitality sectors, which means in pubs and bars and restaurants, particularly as people get more convivial as the evening goes on,” the premier told Marr.

• Sunak: The chancellor told BBC TV on Tuesday that a 10 p.m. curfew on pubs and restaurants “could” help slow transmission but told the Sun newspaper on Monday that the restriction was “frustrating.” Speaking to Sky, the chancellor also dismissed Public Health England data that found eating out was the most commonly reported activity in the 2-7 days prior to coronavirus symptoms developing in the week through Sep. 20. Instead he pointed to other PHE data that “showed a very small percentage of hospitality being a cause for transmissions.”

National lockdown

• Johnson: while also stressing it’s not what he wants, the prime minister said at the beginning of October that he would not “hestitate” to impose tougher national restrictions if that’s what is required.

• Sunak: The alternative to local lockdowns “is that we have blanket national interventions, and I think that clearly wouldn’t be appropriate and we should try and avoid that if we can,” the chancellor told BBC TV on Monday.

Fear of the Virus

• Johnson: “We need to behave fearlessly but with common sense,” the premier told Marr.

• Sunak: “What was true at the beginning of this crisis remains true now: it is on all of us, and we must learn to live with it, and live without fear.”

Tax and Spend

• Johnson: “What you can’t do, I think, at this moment, is go back to what people called austerity,” he told Times Radio on July 29. The prime minister has also repeatedly said he plans to abide by all his manifesto promises, including spending tens of billions of pounds on infrastructure, and a promise not to increase the Treasury’s three biggest revenue raisers – income tax, value added tax and national insurance.

• Sunak: said on Monday that it would be “tricky” to meet all manifesto commitments and the government will need to act “flexibly”. He also warned of “hard choices” ahead, in a sign that tax rises or spending cuts will be needed.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.